


The Invasion

by Demenior



Series: Werewolf [2]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Blood and Gore, Canonical Character Death, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, M/M, Mild Language, Multi, Slow Build Relationships, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-24
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 11:59:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 33,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/939771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demenior/pseuds/Demenior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five normal teens take a shortcut through the abandoned construction site. They stumble across a monster who gives them both a power and a curse. The power to save their world from the Yeerk invasion, and the curse that they will never be human again.</p><p>The Animorphs series, remixed into an urban fantasy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was prompted by an anon to write a little werewolf Ot6 drabble, but little did this anon know I have werewolf au's swimming in my blood and just don't think people are interested. So this prompt basically unleashed the flood!
> 
> This project got out of hand on me so quickly I can't remember what I originally intended it to be. The first instalment will be a nearly scene-by-scene (with obvious adjustments) of The Invasion, and will also help everyone (myself included) get acquainted with the changes I have made to the world. 
> 
> This is meant to be written as if you have never read the Animorphs series before.
> 
> The OT6 will be a very slow build as the pack dynamic shifts and changes, and as the Animorphs series itself it, mostly the main story will be gen. I will likely do more romantic-focused spin-off instalments.
> 
> All of the characters are aged up to high school level. Unsure exactly _when_ this story is taking place- I'm trying for 90's but forgive my inaccuracies. 
> 
> You can check out my [Animoops Werewuffs](You%20can%20check%20out%20my%20Animoops%20Werewuffs%20tag%20on%20my%20tumblr%20to%20see%20my%20own%20drawings,%20talk%20and%20teasers%20for%20this%20story.) tag on my [tumblr ](demenior.tumblr.com)to see my own drawings, talk and teasers for this story.
> 
> Lastly, feel free to message me to chat about any ideas this story gives you, or if you just wanna chat at all! I'm always open to great ideas if I can make them work in my frame :)

The mall was the best place to be on a lazy Tuesday evening. It was early enough in the week that you could still put off any homework, and you were still riding the end of the weekend high and wanted to do fun stuff with your friends.

“Watch out watch out watch out watch out wat—I _said_ ‘watch out’!” Marco slapped his hands over his face in embarrassment, “ _every_ time Jake! Every time!”

Jake held up his hands in defense, “Let’s see you keep an eye on like a million different guys shooting at you and not get hit.”

“We’re outta change anyways, who cares,” Marco rolled his eyes, “besides, it’s getting dark. We should probably start heading home.”

 

Together they made an odd pair. Best friends since they were in diapers, they shared many common interests. Where Jake was tall and white, Marco was a head shorter than him and darker-skinned. Marco was also loud and talked with his hands, while Jake slumped to try to be closer to Marco’s height in solidarity. He was wearing an expression of bemused exasperation, rolling his eyes slightly as Marco talked.

Marco stopped short and said quietly, for Marco, “Oh hey, your boyfriend’s here.”

Sure enough, lurking near the doorway pretending he was looking anywhere but at them, was Tobias. Jake had stopped some guys at school from shoving Tobias’ face in the toilet once and since then Tobias had been following them around like he wanted to be friends but stayed at a distance. It was kinda weird, but Tobias was nice at least so Jake didn’t really mind. Marco didn’t like Tobias that much—thought he was too weird—and so he liked making fun of the whole thing.

Tobias had shaggy dirty-blonde hair and wore clothes that sometimes smelled a little awful, but he apparently didn’t have a really great home life and didn’t have a lot of friends. His skin looked like it should be tan, but slightly pale because he stayed inside all the time.

His freckled face lit up when Jake walked over to him.

“Hey,” Jake said, trying to be casual.

Tobias nodded, a little too eager, “What’s up? Were you playing that new shooting game? It looks really cool!”

Jake shrugged, “Yeah it was okay.”

“Except _someone_ here can’t get past the _same_ part _every_ time and _someone_ keeps blowing all of our quarters so we have to head home,” Marco said, knocking against Jake with his shoulder.

“Oh,” Tobias smiled shyly, “I can walk home— _can_ I walk back with you guys?”

Jake shrugged, ignoring the look he knew Marco was giving him, “Sure.”

Tobias stayed at least three steps behind them as they headed out of the arcade into the food court. It was starting to get a little quiet, as the sun had set.

“Is that Rachel—and _Cassie_!” Marco grinned at Jake, just as Jake lunged at him to cover his mouth, “oh _girls_!”

Rachel whipped around from across the food court, a nasty retort on her lips. She stopped when she saw who was calling them and set her bags down on the ground.

Rachel was Jake’s cousin and was as tall as he was, or maybe even a little taller. She always looked like she’d just walked out of a fashion magazine and had long blonde hair.

“This parasite still following you around Jake?” Rachel asked.

No one noticed Tobias flinch, but Marco snorted and defiantly crossed his arms, “I am the _best_ thing to happen to Jake here and you know it. He’d be an old man staying in after school and drinking prune juice if it wasn’t for me.”

Both Cassie and Rachel burst out laughing.

Cassie was only slightly taller than Marco, which still put her at a great height disadvantage compared to Rachel. They two of them were best friends, and had met in grade school. Cassie had dark skin, even darker than Marco’s, and usually kept her hair back with a bandana. She was always wearing overalls and boots, though if she changed the outfit up because of Rachel, there was always animal poop somewhere on her. She was probably the nicest person around.

And Jake liked her. As in _liked_ her.

It really wasn’t a secret that Cassie _liked_ him back but they were both giant dorks and wouldn’t admit it to one another and instead gave each other little smiles and sometimes made eye contact.

“You boys heading home?” Rachel asked, and then noticed Tobias hovering behind them, “hey, you’re Tobias right?”

Tobias looked like a deer in the headlights and didn’t reply so Marco answered instead, “Yeah we were just walking out when I noticed you babes looking a little lonely. Thought you might want us to walk you home—it gets dark out there fast.”

Jake groaned loudly as Rachel put her hands on her hips, “You think you’re the big strong _man_ who’s gonna protect us?”

“Well we were gonna cut through the construction site,” Marco retorted.

“We never agreed to that,” Jake said.

“So were Cassie and I,” Rachel snapped.

“No we weren’t,” Cassie said.

“It’s not too bad,” Tobias said quietly.

“Fine you should come with us,” Marco stepped forwards.

Rachel towered over him, though she leaned forwards to look down on him, “How about you come with us.”

“I think there’s safety in numbers,” Cassie cut in, “and I am scared of the construction site for sure.”

The best part about having Cassie around was that she always knew how to diffuse a situation—which was always likely to happen when Marco and Rachel were near each other.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids meet a stranger in the construction site.

None of them actually wanted to walk through the abandoned construction site, but they all had to save face and ended up going in anyways. It was a shortcut through from the mall to their neighborhood (or at least where Jake and Rachel lived. Marco had just moved out but could catch a bus easily, and Cassie lived a few blocks down the main road. No one knew where Tobias lived but they’d never seen him in their area other than at school.) but they were always told by adults to never use it. It was filled with half-finished scaffolding and giant cement chunks and cranes that were great to climb on.

Jake was on the lookout for axe murderers, while Marco talked loudly to scare off any potential dangers. Cassie was sticking close to Rachel for comfort, and Rachel was trying to chat with Tobias, who had offered to carry some of her bags and kept glancing around nervously as if he couldn’t believe Rachel would acknowledge his existence.

It was Tobias who saw it first—hidden in the dark shadows. Only its eyes were glowing. Suddenly he stopped, catching everyone’s attention.

“Look,” he said, pointing.

Jake was nervously glancing back to be sure no chain-saw killers had crept up on them in the dark.

“What?” Rachel asked. She stepped forwards to try and see what he was looking at.

There were two spots of light in the dark. They were eye-shaped, but too big and too spaced to be anything human. The hair on all of their necks stood on end.

Tobias set Rachel’s bags down, and he and Jake took tentative steps forwards until they could see what it was.

“Don’t do that,” Marco hissed, grabbing Cassie’s hand nervously.

It was _huge_. Easily the size of a horse or maybe a small car. Dark in the lighting, with shaggy long fur and four long legs. It’s eyes watched them and it had long, sharp fangs extending from its muzzle.

The two boys glanced at one another. They each had an idea of what it was—or what it could be—but they were too afraid to say it.

“Is that an animal?” Cassie asked. She pushed past Marco and Rachel to stand beside the boys, “oh my _god_ it’s a bear! Get back!”

{I am no _bear_ ,} a voice said.

They all stopped. Tobias touched his head. They’d all heard it, but it wasn’t out loud.

{Do not be afraid,} the voice said again.

They heard creaking, shifting sounds. Horrible snapping and gushing and, as Marco and Rachel moved to join the rest, they watched the _thing_ shrink and become naked and human.

“What is _happening_ ,” Marco whispered so only the group could hear him.

The man stood up and he looked _perfectly_ human. Unfortunately for all of them he was an _attractive_ human. He had a skin tone similar to Marco’s, and dark hair with a slight curl. Sharp cheekbones and cunning eyes and he was taller than Jake or Rachel.

“Hello,” Tobias said, sounding as dazed as they all looked.

“Hello,” the man said, and this time it was out loud, “my name is Elfangor. I am here to warn you.”

“Warn _us_?” Rachel snorted, “what is this, power rangers? Who the hell are you! How can you do that?”

The man staggered suddenly, falling onto one knee and clutching at his side. He’d fallen into the light and they could see a jagged wound on his side.

“He’s hurt!” Cassie shouted, “Jake give me your shirt!”

Jake obediently dropped his backpack and started pulling off the flannel shirt he was wearing over a plain t-shirt.

“Don’t bother,” the man said, “the wound will heal. It is… merely an inconvenience.”

“Who did this to you?” Cassie asked, “was it… others? Like you?”

Elfangor pulled himself into a sitting position, obviously in pain. Cassie looked torn between ignoring his request to not help him and letting him suffer.

“Others… yes. There are similarities but they are not werewolves like me. They are different.”

“Different, how?” Jake asked.

Elfangor looked up at them and his green eyes reflected the moon’s light back at them, “They have come to destroy you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _oh no he's hot_


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who are the Yeerks, where is Elfangor from. Some questions get answers, more are raised. Elfangor offers a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize, one of the last info dump chapters before the action begins!
> 
> The werewolves sound a bit difficult but just check out my Animoops Werewuffs tag on tumblr and you can see some drawings that better show how I'm describing them :)

It spoke volumes about how much they believed him when none of them even tried to deny his warning.

“The,” Elfangor grimaced, “the _Yeerks_. They have entered your world, and your people.”

“What can they turn into?” Marco asked, “not to be rude but I think people would notice if giant bears were running around.”

Elfangor barred his teeth and Marco shrank back, “The Yeerks are _not_ werewolves. They are _parasites_. They… it is difficult to explain—they do not have bodies like you or I. They are small, tiny and limbless.”

“Like slugs?” Cassie offered.

Elfangor pondered the word for a moment, “Yes… they are similar. Like slugs, I suppose. They are nearly harmless on their own, and require a host to live in. They enter the brain and assume full control. In my world most species have adapted to prevent this—but the Yeerks were able to cross over and you humans are not prepared.”

“Your world?” Tobias whispered. He was crouched down and hovering like he was seconds from reaching out and touching the stranger. Of course Tobias, unable to survive normal human interaction, would be in his element with a werewolf that was bleeding out everywhere.

 “It… it does not have a name. Not one that you humans would understand anyways,” Elfangor hissed as he struggled to sit up straighter, “once they were the same—your world and mine. There are stories about those times. Demons and goblins and ghosts that plagued mankind and then vanished. We pulled away, following the Elder Fae and their magic into a world just a step behind this one. The magic is strong, even still, and holds our worlds apart. We are only able to cross by slipping through the openings where the magic overlaps.”

“So what are you doing here?” Rachel stood up tall, as if she was going to try and intimidate the werewolf, “aren’t you fighting the Yeerks? Why are you hiding?”

Elfangor shook his head, “My pack and I were sent to locate the Yeerk forces, to stop them if we could. We were betrayed—the portal was guarded and we were ambushed. I am the only one to survive. I need to wait for this wound to heal.”

“That’s terrible,” Cassie said softly. She was wringing Jake’s shirt in her hands for something to do.

  “So the Yeerks are here infesting people? We should tell someone. We’re just kids, we can’t handle this,” Jake said.

“Dude no one is going to believe this,” Marco laughed, “I don’t think I even believe it.”

“I—” Elfangor winced again, “sorry, I cannot maintain this form. It… this form does not handle pain well.”

He changed again—growing, sprouting hair. They could hear his bones grinding against each other and muscles snapping and refitting. Marco stepped back to gag, and Jake thought he was going to be sick.

He was a massive wolf—a dark grey with a touch of red running down his back.

He had bright green eyes and a lighter underbelly and a white sock on his front left paw.

His legs weren’t normal wolf legs though—the front legs looked normal, but he had large hands still. The fingers were longer than they had been when he was human, and they were tipped with long claws. His thumb had moved back to where it would appear on a normal wolf, but was still long enough to be useful and moved as Elfangor talked.

His back paws were four-toed wolf paws, but they were _huge_. His legs were probably longer than his arms.

{You are correct—humans in authority will not believe you. Also we cannot be sure who is a Controller and who is not.}

His voice was in their heads again. Elfangor was panting, but he wasn’t forming any words with his lips.

“Controller?” Tobias asked.

{It is what we call something that has been infested by a Yeerk. The human authorities will be of no help to you, and already we can assume that the Yeerks are working on infesting them.}

“So call more werewolves. You guys fight them!” Marco said, “we’re kids. We can’t do this!”

{Reinforcements cannot come. The Yeerks control the Earthside portals. It is likely that the Otherworld portals will become sealed to prevent the Yeerks from returning with their human hosts and weapons. You humans are on your own. And I fear for your outcomes, with only me to protect you.}

“I’m sure if you were able to find some adults they would help you,” Jake said, “soldiers or police officers or something.”

Elfangor shook his massive head, {Humans cannot fight the Yeerks. They can kill the hosts, but the Yeerks themselves are protected by the dark magic from which they spawned. Only something from Otherworld, with the ability to counter the magic that protects them, can kill them.}

“Spells? Magic? This is nuts,” Marco scoffed.

“What can we do to help?” Tobias asked.

Elfangor closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath. He swung his large muzzle to look at all of their faces. His breath ruffled Tobias’ hair, since he was closest to Elfangor’s jaws. Almost uncomfortably close, even though Tobias was grinning like the giant monster _wouldn’t_ bite his head off before he could blink.

{You can fight with me. I can give you the power to resist the invasion,} Elfangor said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids 'join' Elfangor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See end notes for potential rape/non-con triggers in this chapter- contain spoilers. (None of the triggers actually happen- just parallels to)

{You can fight with me. I can give you the power to resist the invasion,} Elfangor said.

“What?” Cassie squeaked, louder than she intended.

Marco laughed nervously, “You’re kidding. We’re _kids_!”

“How could we do that?” Tobias asked.

Elfangor looked down his muzzle at Tobias’ face, {You would join my pack.} He opened his jaws slightly, drool began dripping from his lips, {I have the power to make you stronger. You will be faster, you will be _better_.}

“No!” Marco shouted, jumping back.

“You’d turn us into werewolves?” Rachel asked, grimacing at how ridiculous she sounded, but looking determined all the same.

{Yes.}

“You can’t just _ask_ that,” Cassie said, “this is huge! How does this even work? We’re kids—what would happen to us?”

{The Bite will make you into a werewolf. A creature with three natural forms. It will give you the power to help me fight the Yeerks and save your race. You will be heroes. You will be better than human.}

“I don’t like this,” Jake said, standing up straight, “we’re kids. We aren’t made for fighting wars. If you want to make a pack then go find some adults—people who know what they’re doing.

“I agree,” Cassie said, reaching out to touch Jake’s arm. She stepped back with him.

“I’ll do it,” Tobias said.

“Are you _insane_?” Marco cried, “we meet a freak of nature and he’s going to make _you_ into a monster? To fight magic and spells and shit?”

“We have to do something!” Tobias shouted.

“Me too,” Rachel said, stepping forwards with Tobias. He looked at her with wide-eyed reverence.

“Rachel! You can’t!” Jake snapped, as if she was going to listen to him.

“You heard him,” Rachel said, “we can’t just sit by and do nothing, Jake. Are you just going to forget this ever happened?”

{Only two of you will fight for your race? I believed humans to be of greater courage,} Elfangor was _angry_ and his fur was standing up along his spine. He startled them all with a vocalized growl. Jake, Cassie and Marco took another step back. Rachel moved forwards to stand beside Tobias.

“Yeah that’s not terrifying at all,” Jake mumbled.

Elfangor stopped growling, and his hackles lowered. He blinked slowly, and turned to lick at the wound on his side.

{I am sorry for frightening you. Would you like to see how the Bite works?} Elfangor said, and his voice was soothing again.

“What do we need to do?” Tobias asked.

{Hold out your arms,} Elfangor instructed. He pushed himself to his feet. He was unsteady, and needed to take a moment to brace himself.

Tobias and Rachel rolled up their sleeves and he and Rachel held out their arms together, palms up. Both their hands were shaking.

{This will hurt, but the wound will heal,} Elfangor said, and he drew his lips back and opened his mouth wide.

“Holy _shit_ ,” Marco hissed.

Elfangor had teeth as long as their fingers and his canines might have been as long as their hands. They were sharp and pointed, like knives.

“That isn’t a normal wolf arrangement,” Cassie muttered.

Jake was trying to stay in one spot and not panic in fear, “Rachel—Tobias, stop! What are you doing?”

“The right thing, Jake,” Rachel said, though she’d grabbed Tobias’ hand for support and her voice was breaking with fear.

Elfangor’s hot breath rolled over Tobias’ skin. He sank his fangs into Tobias’ forearm and Tobias wrenched his other hand out of Rachel’s to cover his mouth while he screamed. The bite itself hardly lasted a second, and Elfangor licked the wound before he let Tobias yank his arm away.

Rachel looked ready to run but when Elfangor bit her she started crying. Red blood was running down both of their arms.

“Oh my god,” Jake was saying out loud, and he grabbed his flannel back from Cassie before dashing forwards to his cousin’s side, “we need to get you to a doctor or the hospital. This is going to get infected. Why are you so _stupid_ sometimes?”

He grabbed Rachel’s arm to press his shirt to the wounds. Cassie was right on his heels and was pulling off her belt to wrap around Tobias’ upper arm.

{Three can make a pack. But they do not make a resistance,} Elfangor whispered.

Jake turned to look at him, “ _What_?”

Elfangor pinned him to the ground beside Rachel with one paw on his back, and sank his fangs into Jake’s hip.

Rachel started screaming, and Cassie was screaming. Jake was barely able to register that Elfangor had Cassie pinned under his other massive paw while the white-hot pain flared up his back. Elfangor shredded his clothes in order to lick the wound, and then bit Cassie’s flailing arm. She was sobbing.

“Stop it!” Tobias shouted, “what are you doing? They said no!”

“Marco, run!” Cassie screamed.

Marco was frozen on the spot, but as soon as Elfangor turned to face him, he found his feet and started running into the dark.

Werewolves, it turns out, are much faster than terrified human boys with thoughts of lonely fathers in their minds.

Marco wasn’t able to make it very far before he tripped and Elfangor was on him. They heard Marco scream as Elfangor gave him the bite. Elfangor started dragging Marco back towards the rest of them.

Rachel scrambled for something to use as a weapon. Cassie had crawled over to Jake and was pressing his flannel shirt into his hip, as the wound was larger and gushing more blood. Tobias was frozen in shock.

Rachel managed to find a broken pipe—short but it felt heavy and violent in her hands. Her arm throbbed and she stepped in front of her friends to face the werewolf carrying a sobbing Marco back to them.

“Put him down!” Rachel growled, hefting the pipe over her shoulder. She tried to remember what she knew about animals this big. If she hit him in the face it might stun him long enough for them to scatter… then… she didn’t really have a plan.

Elfangor dropped Marco near them and he scrambled to Cassie’s side. His shirt sleeve was torn and blood was oozing from his shoulder.

{There,} Elfangor said, {the saliva will take some time working its way through your systems, but you will all begin the transformations by the morning.}

“Why?” Tobias gasped, tears streaming down his face, “why would you attack them? They said _no_!”

{I have given you a gift,} Elfangor said, and he raised his head and tail proudly, {we will be a pack now. You will be stronger than you ever thought you could be. I know you are frightened but you will understand in due time. You are young, but do not fear because I will protect you. Together, we will—} Elfangor stopped and swung his head around, barring his teeth, {someone is approaching. Hide yourselves. Do not let them see your faces.}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elfangor giving the kids the bite can be seen as an imitation of sexual assault. Technically he violates their bodies after Jake, Cassie and Marco clearly say no. I only noticed the parallels after the fact and wanted to be sure it didn't catch anyone off guard.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids meet Visser Three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gore warning. Nothing special that you don't see in the books.
> 
> This marks the last massive infodump chapter until Ax arrives! Hooray!

They obeyed out of fear more than anything. Tobias and Marco were able to help drag Jake behind a half-finished, crumbling brick wall. Elfangor raised his tail and hackles and started growling. The humans pitied anyone who stumbled across him—he looked like a demon.

“Here doggy, doggy!” a human voice called. It sounded cruel and taunting.

Elfangor’s rage flooded their minds, {Yeerks.}

There was something shuffling, and clicking, in the darkness. A group of humans. Into the moonlight they walked, and then suddenly they were _not_ human. Cassie nearly screamed. Jake clamped a hand over her mouth.

{A basic concealing spell to protect their identities—it comes from the rune necklaces they wear. The spell will not hold in direct sunlight, and it cannot fool touch. They were weak because they are infinitely reusable without much drain on the user, unless the runes are broken.}

The monsters looked like walking weapons. Standing on two bent-back legs, with two very long arms. They had blades on every limb, on their tail, on top of their heads— _everywhere_. Their feet had talons and looked more like dinosaur feet. They were making sounds with their beak-like mouths, swiveling back and forth on their long, snake necks.

{Hork-Bajir,} Elfangor said in their minds, {they were once kind and peaceful. Now they are all Controllers.}

“Peaceful my ass,” Marco muttered.

Beside the Hork-Bajir huge, squirming nightmares walked forwards. They looked like massive centipedes, twice as long as a grown man. So big around that you couldn’t even fit your arms if you tried to hug it. Not that anyone would want to. They walked on dozens of stubby, short legs, holding the longer ones erect with their bodies. Those had little claws that opened and closed absent-mindedly as they walked. Their mouths were hanging open, lined with hundreds of long, sharp teeth and their Jell-O-like eyes glowed a disgusting blood red.

{Taxxons. They joined the Yeerks voluntarily,} Elfangor explained, {they are evil and have unimaginable hunger. Kill any Taxxon you meet or it will devour you.}

“No shit,” Marco muttered again.

“Shut up,” Rachel snapped.

There was still a small group of humans standing back and watching, their faces obscured by shadow. The Hork-Bajir and Taxxons surrounded Elfangor in a ring. One of the humans swaggered into the ring, looking like he owned the place. He was tall, and it was difficult to make out most of his features from afar, other than the fact that he had short-cropped hair.

{Visser Three,} Elfangor hissed. His rage intensified until all five teens found themselves hating the very sight of the man.

“Well, well,” the man said loudly, “what have we here? A meddling _Andalite_?”

“Andalite?” Tobias repeated, mouth twisting in confusion.

{Those who scout and protect the balance between the two worlds. We are called Andalites,} Elfangor explained. He had his teeth barred and was watching the man intently.

“Hold on,” the man said, and he sniffed the air “not just _any_ Andalite—you are a Prince. Prince Elfangor, if I am correct? You’re quite a legend among us—not to mention, _how_ many of our troops did you kill in the ambush?”

Elfangor snarled and lunged at the man. In an instant, the man had leapt back and he _changed_ just like Elfangor did. He was larger than Elfangor, a beast heavier and broader in the chest and head. His fangs were yellowed and long, his coat short and silver in the moonlight. His tail arched over his back, hackles raised making him even larger. He had a large dark stripe running from nose to tail, wide down his back. His muzzle was box shaped and his legs were thicker than Elfangor’s.

“He’s a werewolf too?!” Jake whispered in disbelief.

{The only Andalite-Controller in existence,} Elfangor explained, {he is an abomination.}

{You fool. You are the only one of your pack remaining. We have killed all of the others. And you are wounded, ha!} Visser Three’s voice echoed in their minds.

“Can he hear us?” Cassie was shaking.

{He is broadcasting his thoughts. This is a great victory for him,} Elfangor said immediately, {as a pack we can communicate in any form together, privately. But you can also project your thoughts when you are not in your human form, and they can be to as many people as are in your range.}

{Brave, brave Elfangor,} Visser Three taunted, {I will kill you here, and then the Yeerks will take this world for our own. Once we have these humans under our sway then no one will be able to stop us. Your people have failed.}

Elfangor snarled loudly, raising his head for a howl, {There will be others!} he cried, {I am not the last!}

They clashed in the center of the ring of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. Elfangor was incredible. He struck as fast as a serpent, leaping just out of the way of Visser Three’s jaws before they could close on him. He darted in and sliced an open wound across Visser Three’s brow, spraying blood across the ground.

But even from the start it was a losing battle.

Visser Three managed to get his claws into Elfangor’s wound and he twisted his long fingers into it. Elfangor dropped, a high-pitched screaming coming from his throat and his pain rattling inside their minds. Marco threw up.

{You have fought bravely, Andalite,} Visser Three said, and he chuckled in a deep, grating voice, {but you have lost.}

He pinned Elfangor with his front paws while he used his large jaw to rip out Elfangor’s throat.

“Oh my god,” Tobias whimpered. He was crying. They could _feel_ Elfangor dying.

“Should we do something?” Jake asked. Cassie was too distracted to make him lay down again. Rachel reached out to hold Tobias and Cassie’s hands. Marco was gripping Jake’s knee so tightly his knuckles were white.

“There’s nothing we can do,” Rachel said.

They listened to the awful sounds of Elfangor’s wheezing breaths, and the crunch and snap of Visser Three tearing apart muscle and rib to get at Elfangor’s heart.

Elfangor cried out in their minds, and then went silent.

Visser Three tore Elfangor’s heart from his body.

{Sweet victory,} he laughed, and crushed Elfangor's heart in his jaws. He had to grip it with both hands to tear chunks off of it. Elfangor's body continued twitching, hot blood steaming in the cool night air, as Visser Three ate his heart. The Taxxons were hissing and moving from side to side, impatiently trying to creep forwards. Visser three snarled at them to stay back. Once he finished swallowing Elfangor's heart he began to change into his human shape. He was completely naked and covered in Elfangor’s blood. All of his wounds had healed.

“Let the Taxxons finish up the evidence. Leave nothing behind,” he ordered. A human jogged forwards and handed the Visser a change of clothes and a towel to wipe himself off with.

The Taxxons descended on Elfangor’s body like a wave. They screamed and shrieked in what had to be pleasure. They ate _everything_.

Both Jake and Marco threw up.

A Hork-Bajir near them suddenly lifted its head, looking around. The teenagers flattened themselves to the ground. It broke from the circle, walking straight towards them.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Escape from the construction site!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While there is a character change, you'll find that this is very similar as to how the book plays out.

“What is it?” Visser Three demanded. He started walking towards them.

They don’t know who was first, but they panicked. They all ran.

“Split up!” Jake yelled, “they can’t follow all of us!”

He tripped shortly after, landing on his injured hip. The surge of adrenaline that had made him forget the pain was gone and he struggled to get back to his feet. Marco was on him in an instant, yanking Jake to his feet and nearly throwing him across his back.

The Hork-Bajir had stopped, looking at the running shapes and trying to pick who to chase first. Jake shoved off of Marco.

“I’m faster,” he said, “I’ll distract it—”

“Faster my ass,” Marco snapped, “you’re crippled!”

They heard Rachel shouting, “Come on, over here you—” and she used some words the boys hadn’t been aware she’d known.

The Hork-Bajir started running after her.

“Ghafrash! Here! Ghafrash fit! Enemy! Get!”

Even in their panic that startled the boys. The Hork-Bajir was talking a mix of its own language and English.

“Ghafrash fit nahar! I get! I kill!”

Rachel dashed madly into the dark, knowing death itself was hot on her heels. She tripped over a concrete block half-buried in mud and went down hard. Her arm flared in pain, but she didn’t have time to cry. There was a dark hole ahead—a doorway! She raced into it

            Inside it was as black as a grave. It was one of the buildings that had almost been completed. Just bare concrete walls and scattered junk. Thankfully Rachel had been here before- Jake had shown her places he and Marco had explored during one of their families dinner parties. There were hallways and little side rooms. It was like a maze.

Cassie! Jake! Had they gotten away? And what about Marco and Tobias?

She tried to get her brain to concentrate as she scurried across the first big room. There was a corridor . . . somewhere. She groped in the dark and found a wall.

Behind her came the sound of claw like feet, huge, tearing, rending claw feet scraping over the bare concrete. A bottle went skittering across the floor.

The Hork-Bajir was close! And in the total darkness she could barely see, likely the Hork-Bajir couldn't either. But Rachel knew her way around the empty building.

At least, she would have known my way around if her brain had been working.

Her hand fell into emptiness. A doorway. It led down a hallway. She went through just as a light came on behind her. Someone had brought a flashlight

"Efnud to tell fallay nyot fit? Whatever order?"

"No. No need to capture them. Whoever you find, kill."

The first voice had been Hork-Bajir. The second voice was human. And the weird thing was, that voice sounded familiar. She tried to think. She knew she'd heard that voice somewhere. Where? Where?

"Just save the head," the human told the Hork-Bajir. "Bring that to me and we can identify it."

Rachel slid quickly along the wall.

The light followed just steps behind her.

She racked her brains. Had there been a passageway . . . ? Yes, there it was. As silently as she could, she slipped into it. The flashlight beam was just inches behind her.

Rachel kicked something soft.

"Hey!"

It was a man! He had been lying on the ground, wrapped in a blanket.

"Hey, get outta here. This is my place, and I ain't got nothin' for you to steal." Rachel wanted to warn him, but one of the Hork-Bajir was there!

The flashlight landed on the homeless man's face. He blinked like an owl. There was an alcove. Right behind her. Rachel backed through.

The homeless guy screamed. There were the sounds of a scuffle.

Rachel wanted to hope that the guy got away. But who could fight a Hork-Bajir and survive?

She didn't stay to find out, because with the Hork-Bajir distracted, she ran.

Rachel ran and ran and ran. And as she ran, she really hoped it was all just a dream. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel makes it home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter this time. Thank you to everyone who's read and commented thus far- you all mean the world to me and have no idea how excited I am that people are enjoying this little project!

When Rachel got home her mom asked her to unload the dishwasher and was shocked that Rachel had spent all afternoon at the mall and hadn't bought anything. Rachel couldn't remember where she'd lost her bags and couldn't be bothered to care. She hid the wounds on her arm under her sleeve and managed to make it upstairs to her room before it bled through. She locked the door behind herself and pulled up her sleeve to look at the damage.

Her arm was healing.

The bite looked like it had been done days, if not weeks, ago. She slid down against the door, turning her arm in the light and trying to find some sign of infection.

Her youngest sister, Sara, came upstairs telling her that Cousin Jake was on the phone. She only talked to him briefly—her being the last to check in. Everyone had gotten home safe. Marco had practically carried Jake out of the construction site but he was able to walk by the time they got back to Jake’s. His parents were asleep and Tom, Jake’s older brother, hadn’t been home so Jake was able to sneak into his room and change before anyone could see his torn up clothes. But his bite was healing fast as well.

She assured him that she was okay, even though he felt awful about not being able to be with her. Of everyone she and Jake were the fastest—Tobias was out of shape, and Cassie and Marco were too short to be fast. Jake would have run into the dark building with her, and been there when the Hork-Bajir and the human were trying to kill her. Rachel managed to keep it together until she hung up, and she crawled into bed exhausted, and fell asleep crying.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang gathers to talk about their future.

Tobias was the last one to show up to Cassie’s on Saturday morning. They spotted him walking up the long driveway to Cassie’s house and barn, carrying bright, pink bags.

He was obviously out of breath from the walk, and marched straight up to Rachel.

“You forgot your bags,” he mumbled, holding them out for her.

Rachel’s ears went red and she dropped the bags at her feet once she had them, “Oh, wow, thanks.”

“So now that we’re all here,” Marco said, “shall we get down to business? I don’t know about you, but I _don’t_ look like I’ve been mauled by a hellhound.”

He yanked the shoulder of his shirt down to show a nearly-normal shoulder. There was only a hint of the bite, a shading of red on his skin that indicated it had nearly healed.

“Mine too,” Jake said; lifting his shirt as if it was show-and-tell, “I don’t think there have been any side effects so far. I mean, breakfast smelled awful but my dad tried to make some vegetarian thing so it always smells bad.” He laughed at his own joke.

One by one they all showed their bite marks, all at the same stage of nearly-healed.

“Maybe it’s like Visser Three,” Cassie said, “and the wounds heal.”

“Why didn’t Elfangor’s?” Marco asked, “it’s kinda why he _died_.”

“I have an idea,” Tobias said, and he shrank when they all looked at him, “I… I couldn’t sleep. So I did some research. It might have been made with something silver—apparently silver is bad for werewolves.”

“Werewolves!” Marco threw up his hands, “we _should_ be getting checked for rabies! Or a million other diseases. And we wouldn’t be in this mess if _you_ two idiots hadn’t decided to go play hero.”

Tobias slouched even more, and Rachel turned her shoulders to face Marco and block Tobias, “We wouldn’t be in this mess if we hadn’t gone through the construction site! Tobias and I wanted to help—are you just going to let the Yeerks take over the world?”

“Yeah,” Marco snapped, “because I was almost _killed_ last night. Do you know what would happen to my dad if—if I—” Marco stomped his foot on the ground and turned away before anyone could see the tears in his eyes, “I won’t leave my dad alone. Not after my mom died. He wouldn’t make it.”

“Now is not the time to be placing blame,” Cassie said, “all we know is that the Yeerks are here. We saw… we saw Visser Three _murder_ Elfangor last night,” she shuddered, “and that… that was _real_. I don’t want to see anything like that again—but now I think we’re the only ones who know about it.”

“They’re looking for us,” Rachel nodded. She pulled a newspaper out of her bag and held it out to the group, “right here. They’re saying that there was a commotion in the construction site last night—maybe dog fighting or just kids screwing around and police want some information on whoever was there.”

“But that’s not true,” Jake said, “there had to be tons of blood—and all the tracks from the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons!”

“It means the Yeerks are in the newspapers,” Tobias said, “and probably in the police force as well.”

“Then this is huge and way beyond us,” Marco said, “we forget about it. Let someone else deal with this.”

“Except we were all bitten,” Cassie said, “are we all going to become werewolves?”

“Marco’s got enough hair,” Rachel remarked, and she reached out to ruffle Marco’s long hair.

“Tobias,” Jake said, and Tobias blushed as everyone looked at him, “you said you looked stuff up? Can you tell us anything?”

“Well, Elfangor could change form at will,” Tobias stumbled over his words as if he was unsure of what he was saying, “but a lot of the lore says they can only change on a full moon. Has anyone here turned into a werewolf?”

They all shook their heads _no_.

“I didn’t think so,” he said, “I tried, I really did. I was petting Dude—my cat—and just thinking about turning into a werewolf, and I… well I thought I was growing fur on my hand but it was just Dude shedding everywhere. So, if we haven’t changed yet then maybe we never will—like with Elfangor, the one who bit us, dead, then we don’t have the curse? That’s one of the theories at least.”

“Or?” Rachel asked.

“Or, because tonight is the full moon, _tonight_ we’re all going to change.”

They all fell silent, not looking at one another.

“Oh,” Jake said, after a beat, “ _well_.”

“This is ridiculous,” Marco said, “ _werewolves_. Are we seriously talking about _werewolves_?”

“No, this is _serious_ ,” Rachel said, “we have to fight the Yeerks.”

“Will we be… will we be _us_ if we turn into werewolves?” Cassie asked quietly, “or will we be animals?”

Jake scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “Well… Elfangor was himself, right? He could talk and everything.”

“And yet he still attacked us,” Marco pointed out.

“But he’s been a werewolf for a long time,” Tobias said, “they might do things different from people.”

“We don’t really know how long, but he obviously knew his stuff,” Rachel said, “he seemed really above people, so maybe he was born a werewolf? _Can_ you be born a werewolf?”

Tobias shrugged, “I don’t know. But maybe the first change will be really hard on us. It might not be a good idea to be home tonight—just in case.”

“We’re just going to go on an impromptu camping trip alone in the woods and maybe howl at the moon and _attack_ people?” Marco said, “that’s totally normal.”

“It’s a good idea, actually,” Jake said, and Marco glared at him as if Jake had betrayed him, “can we get out into the woods behind your place Cassie?”

Cassie nodded, “Yeah. And my dad has a lot of camping gear we can use.”

“Sweet,” Jake nodded, “I’ve got a few sleeping bags and a bag of marshmallows I can bring.”

“I’ll bring my ukulele and we can all sing _kumbaya_ by the fire,” Marco snapped, “this is dumb and I’m not wasting a night out in the woods because I _might_ turn into a werewolf from another world.”

“And what if you change at home?” Jake said, “with your dad there. Best case scenario is that we don’t change at all—but what if we _do_?”

Marco went silent, scowled, and finally let out a long breath, “ _Fine_. But are our parents going to be cool with the coed slumber party?”

“Oh,” Jake made a face this time, “uh.”

Rachel shrugged, “You tell your parents you’re having a sleepover with Marco and Tobias, I say I’m camping with Cassie in her backyard. You boys just have to sneak in without her parents seeing. Honestly Jake, it’s like you’ve never snuck around before.”

Jake maturely rolled his eyes but didn’t comment.

Rachel sat down suddenly, startling everyone.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked, dropping to his knees beside her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, covering her eyes, “just… really dizzy all of a sudden.”

Jake put his hand on her forehead, and frowned, “You’re burning up,” he said, “do you feel sick?”

“No,” she shook her head, eyes clenched shut, “just… everything’s really… _intense_. Like too bright, too loud, too… too smelly.”

Tobias kneeled beside her and whispered, “Maybe… maybe it’s your werewolf senses?”

Marco snorted, “Do you _realize_ how stupid you sound?”

Rachel displayed her middle finger in the direction of his voice, “No, he… that almost sounds right. It’s like everything just got turned up to eleven.”

“I should get you home,” Jake said. He pulled her to her feet by her upper arms; Rachel swayed and nearly fell into him.

“No, no, no,” she said, “I’ll… I’ll be okay. It’s just… a lot to handle. I can deal.”

“We should all be out here before the moon rises,” Tobias said, and blinked rapidly before rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, “oh _wow_ it just kicked in.”

“Let’s get out of sight of my house,” Cassie said, “if we’re all going to do this. I don’t want my dad to see us.”

Jake half-carried Rachel while Cassie and Marco were able to get Tobias on his feet as they moved to the line of trees just out of sight from the house. They were almost there when Jake stumbled, nearly dropping Rachel into the dust.

“Oh my god!” he shouted, and managed the last few feet leaning onto Rachel as much as she was leaning onto him. They sank into the grass together. Rachel was blinking her eyes open, though they were watery, and was trying to look around.

“Well at this rate I’m next,” Cassie groaned as they set Tobias down, “is everyone okay? Does it hurt?”

“Rachel was right,” Tobias said, blinking back tears, “everything is just… up to _eleven_. Holy _cow_ can I see.”

“Ears,” Jake growled, covering his own. His eyes were clenched tight.

Cassie sat down beside Jake, touching his shoulder with her own, “Rachel and Tobias are okay,” she said softly, “so it doesn’t last too long— _oh_! My nose!”

Cassie pressed her face into Jake’s shoulder while Rachel crawled over to check Tobias’ temperature. He was staring out at the trees like he’d never seen it before.

“You’re burning up too and… and _wow_. You have, like, a lot of freckles,” she said, staring at his face as if she’d never seen it before.

“Welcome to Weirdsville,” Marco muttered in the midst of all of them. He took a seat in the middle of his insane friends and waited for the tune-up.

One moment he was looking through boring normal human eyes and the next everything was _sharp_. It was _bright_. There was contrast and colors like he’d never seen before. He could see every single stalk of grass moving in the breeze, every leaf swaying on a branch. It was making him dizzy. The details in the clothing he was wearing—the brightness of the fabrics! They were starting to bleed into one another and his eyes were stinging. He clamped them tight and folded over his knees to keep from throwing up.

He could hear too. The creak of the wind through Cassie’s barn. Jake moaning about his eyes sounded like he was shouting through a megaphone even though he was only a few feet away.

His brain throbbed like he was having the worst headache of his life, like it was going to explode because how could anyone handle this much sensation?

Then his nose kicked in. it was as if he’d had cotton balls stuffed in his nose his entire life and just pulled it free. He could smell the manure and dirty hay from the barn, the pie Cassie’s dad had baked earlier this morning. Marco could smell the horses that had walked by _this morning_ and the fruity shampoo Rachel used for her hair.

It was all exploding inside his mind and everything was so _sharp_ and _brilliant_ he couldn’t keep up. His head was building with pressure and Marco wanted to scream. His eyes were going to pop right out of their sockets; his hear drums were going to burst!

Then it all went silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tobias how did you know the library was even _open_ that late?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The babies aren't as subtle as they think they are.

“Marco, hey. Can you deal? You okay, man?” Jake was asking. His voice still sounded incredibly loud.

Marco was afraid to open his eyes for the assault of colors and light, but as he wearily blinked them open, everything was still _bright_ and _stunning_ but it was manageable. His brain had learned how to handle all of the details.

“You okay?” Jake asked again.

Marco sat up. He was on the opposite end of the field from where they’d all sat down, “What happened?”

“We, uh, well..” Jake shrugged, “there was a lot to look at. We all kinda ran around smelling things and looking at things.”

“ _Smelling_?” Marco asked. He could smell something different. Musky, but light.

“What’s that smell?” he asked.

Jake shrugged again, “I went into the barn—but then all the animals started freaking out so I had to get out, and you were running off this way shouting about a smell.”

Tobias came jogging over—a sprint that should have left him out of breath for the activity level he was normally at, “It’s happening!” he shouted, “we’re changing!”

“Should we be this excited about it?” Jake asked.

Cassie and Rachel followed behind Tobias. Rachel was picking twigs out of her hair; Cassie had notable new grass stains on her overalls.

“This is _incredible_ ,” Cassie was grinning ear to ear, “it’s like I’ve never experienced the world before!”

Rachel closed her eyes and tilted her head, still lost in the sounds. She snapped her head to face Cassie’s house and opened her eyes, “Your dad just walked out. He… he’s walking this way.”

Merely seconds later Cassie’s father came into view around the barn. He waved at them.

“What do we do?” Cassie hissed, “what if he saw us?”

“Play it cool,” Jake said, “Marco can come up with something.”

“Me?” Marco nearly shouted, “why do I—

“Hello sir!” Jake said loudly, “how are you today?”

“You kids okay?” Cassie’s dad asked.

“Why do you ask?” Rachel asked sweetly.

“Hi daddy,” Cassie waved and smiled.

Normally Cassie’s dad was grinning and ready to laugh at any second. Right now he looked concerned and wary like he didn’t trust the smiling faces they were putting on. Tobias was very distracted by his hairy eyebrows.

“I looked out the window and saw all of you running around and rolling on the grass. Is everything alright?” he said.

“Well,” Marco laughed, “very funny story—we were just over by the trees there, when, uh, when Rachel here proposed a very childish game of make believe.”

Cassie stomped on Rachel’s foot when she opened her mouth to retaliate.

“Aren’t you kids a little old for that?” Cassie’s dad sniffed the air, “look, be honest with me, are any of you high? I won’t be angry.”

“We’re not high!” Tobias said too loudly to not be suspicious, “we just wanted to goof around, pretend we were fighting aliens, you know?”

“Yeah,” Marco agreed, “just reliving the glory days of elementary.”

“Honest,” Rachel said, “no drugs here. Are we seriously a group of kids who would have drugs?”

Cassie’s father very wisely did not comment on Tobias’ appearance, and nodded slowly, “Okay. You sure you’re all alright though? I was a little worried just seeing everyone racing around like lunatics.”

“We’re fine, Dad,” Cassie grinned, and moved forwards to hug him, “sorry I scared you. Actually, I think everyone was just leaving. But—could Rachel come over tonight? We were thinking about all the times we used to camp in the backyard and wanted to do it again.”

“You girls seriously want to go camping?” Cassie’s dad laughed, “you realize there’s lots of bugs, right?”

“We won’t call you to come kill a spider after midnight, promise,” Cassie laughed. She hooked her arm through her dad’s and guided him back towards their house, “bye everyone! I’ll see you tonight, okay, Rachel?”

“We should be out before the moon rises,” Tobias said, just louder than his normal voice. Cassie gave them a thumbs-up behind her dad’s back to show she heard him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strange coincidences surround Jake's older brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am trying to date this in the 90s still, so apparently in the 90s the cool kids called dumbasses 'dips'.  
>  _Dips_  
>  What a beautiful insult.

Tobias walked Rachel back to her house. She said she’d be fine but he wanted to help her carry her bags. Jake and Marco followed their familiar route back to Jake’s home.

Until a few months ago, Marco had lived in the same neighborhood. After his mom died in a boating accident almost two years ago, his dad had lost his job and they’d had to move to a smaller apartment in a rougher neighborhood.

They talked about the baseball season. They talked about who was going to slaughter who in Dead Zone 5, which is was the CD game they were going to play on Jake’s computer.

By the time they’d reached Jake’s house, they were trying to name all of the things they could smell or hear before the other could detect it.

They collected a few sleeping bags and pillows to share, and the bag of marshmallows, and tossed them on Jake’s bed while they set up the computer to goof around for a while.

They played Dead Zone for a while. Neither of them did very well. They graphics were slow and grainy to their new eyes, and they kept being distracted by the bits and pieces of mess around Jake’s room as well as all of the _smells_.

Jake’s dog Homer ran upstairs to greet them when Jake’s older brother Tom came back from their walk. He burst into the room, tail wagging, and then froze. He sniffed the air, and put his tail between his legs as he walked up to Jake.

“Hey Homer, what’s up boy?” Jake asked. He set his control stick down and reached out. Homer sniffed Jake’s hand and then barred his teeth and growled.

“Homer what the heck?” Jake shouted, “get out!”

Homer slunk out of the room with his tail between his legs, though he paused to sniff the pants Jake had left on the floor from last night.

“You think that’s… you know,” Jake said, “about what’s happening?”

Marco shrugged, “Probably. Hell, I don’t know. Do I look like a freak expert?”

They went back to trying to play video games, to be normal for a little bit longer.

Tom came in after a while. "Hey, you guys," he said. "Can I give that a try?"

It had been months since Tom had done anything with them like play a game. Since Tom had joined a community group called The Sharing he hadn’t had a lot of time to hang out with his younger brother. It was also probably because hanging out with your little siblings was uncool, but Tom had never let that bother him before.

"Sure." Marco moved over and gave Tom his control stick.

Tom and Jake played for a few minutes, and Tom did pretty well. But then a switch seemed to go and he got bored or something. He gave the control back to Marco and just sat back and watched.

"You guys hear about all the stuff going on with the construction site last night?" he asked.

Marco jerked in surprise.

"What stuff?" Jake said.

"It was in the newspaper," Tom said casually. "They said some kids were fighting or were having like dog fights or something. Some dumb people thought it might have been like a wolf or a bear or a lion,” he laughed. "lions and tigers and bears, right?"

Marco and Jake both laughed, too.

"Yeah. And it was probably just some guys hanging out or like having a bonfire or something," Tom said.

"Uh-huh," Jake said. He was trying very hard to concentrate on the game. Marco was paying attention to the fact that he could hear Tom’s heartbeat.

"You were out at the mall last night, weren't you?" Tom asked them.

"Uh-huh."

"Did you come back through the construction site?"

To his credit Jake didn’t seize up, but it probably helped that he wasn’t looking at Tom, "No way."

"Didn't see any kids hanging around there, maybe?"

"Nope."

"It's not like I'd get them in trouble," Tom said, "I mean, I think it's kind of cool. They're just goofing around and they get all these people terrified of wild animals."

"Uh-huh."

"Bears," he said. He laughed again, "Only complete dips believe that kind of stuff."

He leaned close, "You don't believe in that, do you? Sewer gators or monsters that come out at night?"

There were a lot of things Jake could have said, but he only managed to get out, "No way."

Marco was very interested in how Tom’s heartbeat started racing while waiting for Jake’s response. He scrunched up his nose as he noticed something else. Tom smelled… Tom smelled _bad_. This close, Marco could tell where it was coming from. His _head_ smelled bad. Not like something disgusting but like something dark and tainted that Marco wanted to curl his lips and snarl at or run away from really fast.

Tom nodded and stood up, "Cool. You know, Jake, I feel like we haven't been hanging around much lately."

"I guess not," Jake agreed. Jake’s face twitched and Marco could tell Jake was smelling exactly what he was.

"That's too bad," Tom said. He snapped his fingers like he'd just had an idea. "You know, you should join The Sharing. We’re having a beach party tomorrow, you should come! You too, Marco."

"Why should we?" Marco asked.

Tom just grinned. "I gotta go," he said. He gave Jake a playful punch on the shoulder. "Catch you guys later. And don't forget - let me know if you hear anything about those kids at the construction site."

He left.

Marco looked at Jake once Tom was out of earshot. "Jake. He's one of them."

"What?"

"Tom. Tom is one of them. Your brother is a Controller."


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get ready for the big night.

Jake swung on reflex alone and caught Marco in the side of the head.

He jumped back and Jake swung again. But Marco was surprisingly—newly—quick. He dodged Jake’s second swing, and Jake slipped and went down.

Marco snatched the top blanket off of the pile of things on Jake’s bed, threw it over Jake to tangle up his arms, and sat on him. It was surprisingly effective, like taming an angry cat.

"Jake, quit acting like a stupid jerk," Marco said.

Jake was struggling to break free, though he was losing steam and settling down. "Take that back!" he yelled instead.

"Not likely," Marco said. "You think it's just a coincidence he's suddenly all interested in what happened at the construction site?"

Jake knew it looked bad. Even while he was struggling to get free and kick Marco's butt, he could clearly remember the awful smell they’d noticed on Tom just now. Every instinct in him had screamed _enemy_.

But this was Jake’s older brother—who Jake had tried out for the basketball team to impress. Tom who joked with him and had helped Marco and Jake rent their first PG-13 movie when they were eleven.

“Tom would never, ever have let a slimy Yeerk creep into his head. Never,” Jake snapped.

"I'll let you up if you'll calm down," Marco said. "Look, maybe I'm wrong, okay?"

Jake finally stopped struggling, and Marco let him up.

"You have to admit, Jake, it doesn't look good. Plus, whatever that smell was on him… it wasn’t normal."

"Tom is not one of them, okay? That's final," Jake said.

"Whatever," Marco said. "Just don't punch me again, 'cause I might have to hit you back."

“Yo, Jake! Your friend is here to see you!” Tom called from downstairs. Both Marco and Jake jumped. They exchanged suspicious glances—Jake wasn’t expecting anyone else.

Tobias’s shaggy, freckled face popped into Jake’s room, “Hey,” he said nervously.

“Oh, hey,” Jake said, “come in.”

Tobias perched on the edge of Jake’s bed, “You guys got everything?”

“Should we go _now_?” Jake asked.

Tobias shrugged, “We should be out in the woods before the sun sets. In case we start changing earlier”

‘I thought we just needed to be out before the moon rises?” Jake said.

“And when does the moon rise, genius?” Marco laughed.

Jake moved to punch Marco, and Marco flinched and rolled across the room.

“I’ll just get changed,” Jake said, and glanced over at Marco, “you need another sweater?”

“Nah,” Marco laughed, and picked a hoodie up from under Jake’s bed, “I’m pretty sure this one is mine.”

“Where’s your stuff?” Jake asked Tobias.

Tobias shrugged, “I didn’t think I needed anything, really.”

“You’re not actually a wolf,” Marco snapped, pulling his head through the hoodie, “you’re a human being. We don’t sleep in the forest like animals.”

“You can borrow one of my sleeping bags,” Jake said, “Marco and I can share if we can’t find a third.”

“Oh, I don’t want, uh to,” Tobias stammered and then squeaked when Jake took off his shirt, “be a burden!”

Jake shrugged on another long-sleeved shirt and a fresh sweater on top of the pile near his closet, “You okay?”

“Fine,” Tobias said, “I—I  just slipped a bit.”

 His face was bright red and his heart was racing. Neither Marco or Jake thought it was a normal reaction to almost falling off the bed, but they didn’t mention it.

Jake grabbed another hoodie and tossed it over to Tobias, “Here. You’ll get sick if you don’t wear something warm.”

“Look at daddy’s little boy,” Marco snorted, “you itching to be a doctor too?”

Jake rolled his eyes, “Next time you catch something and think you’re dying I’m not going to help you.”

Tobias put on Jake’s hoodie and inhaled, “It smells like you,” he said.

“No shit,” Marco said.

Jake grabbed one of the rolled-up sleeping bags and threw it at Marco, “Shut up.”

“No, like, with the new sense of smell,” Tobias said, “it _really_ smells like you, Jake. You have… you have your own scent. I could probably track you now that I’ve gotten a good hold on it.”

Jake glanced at Marco and Marco held up his hands in defense, “I’m not saying anything.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The walk to Cassie's (Jake will make them turn around if Marco and Tobias don't shut up, he swears to god)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tobias gets back at Marco a bit for all the gay jokes. It's kinda sweet.

The walk to Cassie’s wasn’t too long, but it was a little difficult carrying everything they needed. Normally they would have gotten a ride but they couldn’t let Jake’s parents know that they were actually going out to Cassie’s. Jake carried two sleeping bags, one under each arm. Marco carried the third, and the backpack of food. Tobias had his own bag of books and was stuck carrying the pillows.

“I swear I can’t wait until I can drive,” Marco muttered, “we are getting the _weirdest_ looks right now.”

“Remember we can’t let Cassie’s parents see us,” Jake said, “so we’ve gotta sneak through the woods.”

“Watch out for snakes,” Tobias added.

“Snakes!” Marco shouted, “I didn’t sign up for _snakes_!”

“The sun is going down,” Tobias continued, “we should hurry up.”

 

They were nearly ten minutes into stomping through the woods surrounding Cassie’s farm, having avoided the open driveway.

“How are we even supposed to find them?” Marco muttered.

Jake was leading the way, trying not to trip on upturned roots or loose rocks. He stopped suddenly and sniffed the air, “I—hey I can smell them! I think.”

Marco sniffed the air, “Yeah that’s Rachel’s shampoo—strawberry, right? I could recognize that anywhere.”

Tobias knocked Marco’s shoulder as he passed him, “And you said I was creepy about scents.”

Marco resisted the urge to hit him back, “I never _said_ it!”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long-awaited transformation chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured out the html to make proper thoughtspeak with the less than/greater than symbols so I'll be going back and editing the earlier chapters. Now it'll really feel like Animorphs up in here!
> 
> Thanks for making it through 13 chapters to finally get to what you've all been waiting for! 
> 
> I tried to keep the morphing sequences/descriptions similar to morphing in-canon. Hopefully this'll satisfy y'all for another week!

By the time they reached the camp site the girls had set up a little fire as well at the tent. Rachel was snacking on a bag of chips and Cassie was dressed in an oversized sweater.

“Finally,” Rachel said, “we were starting to think you guys had bailed on us.”

“I’ve got marshmallows,” Jake said, “I’ll just go throw these in the tent.”

“Wait,” Cassie said, “I thought my tent was bigger—it’s been a while since my family went camping…” she trailed off with a nervous look.

“So?” Marco asked.

“So it only fits three people,” Cassie explained.

Marco threw his sleeping bag on the ground, “Oh hell _no_ I am not sleeping outdoors.”

“Are you sure we can’t all fit?” Jake asked.

“If we want to sleep on top of each other, sure,” Rachel said, “but you boys smell funny and I’m not that kind of girl.”

Jake rolled his eyes, “Rachel we’re related.”

She winked at him, “Hey, California is a-ok on cousin marriages.”

Jake looked disgusted.

“I’m really sorry guys,” Cassie said.

“The third spot is _mine_ ,” Marco said.

“No,” Rachel told him.

“We should take off our clothes,” Tobias said.

They all stopped and stared at him.

He suddenly went beet red, holding one of his werewolf books open, “I—I—oh my god—Elfangor was really big!” he shouted, “when we change we’ll rip our clothes! Oh my god I didn’t—I’m sorry!”

“You can sleep with him,” Marco picked up and shoved his sleeping bag at Jake, “you can even use mine.”

“The moon is going to start rising soon,” Tobias said, “we really should be ready.”

“Okay what do we need to know?” Rachel asked.

Tobias was still completely red from his ears all the way down his neck, “Well… I… we need to avoid silver. Some books say wolfsbane is bad for werewolves, and some talk about fairy rings being able to trap evil spirits. A lot of legends have werewolves as the bad guys, but I don’t _think_ we are. Some of them said that you’re unable to control yourself when you’re transformed, but Elfangor was okay so I think we should be okay too. Except apparently the full moon is really strong so that might mean we have to do this once a month.”

“Our parents are going to notice if we go camping every full moon,” Jake said.

“There’s a _lot_ of legends, okay,” Tobias held up his heavy bag in defense, “and a lot of them say all different things. Sometimes werewolves are just really hairy people, sometimes they’re actual wolves. We saw that Elfangor was a mix of human and wolf, so we’ll probably be like that.”

“Makes sense,” Cassie nodded, “is there anything we can do to prepare?”

“Who even knows we’re going to change?” Marco snapped.

“Well you’ve been feeling it all day, right?” Tobias said, “the senses this morning. You’re getting stronger and faster?”

“Well I carried my own sleeping bag over here but I don’t think I’m going to be throwing cars around anytime soon,” Marco replied.

“I jumped my neighbors fence today,” Tobias said.

“I’ve jumped fences before,” Rachel said softly, “that doesn’t really prove—”

“Without touching it,” Tobias finished, “I was trying things all day. I can run like I never could before—faster, and for longer. I can jump higher than I ever could before, and I can carry more than I have before. So we _are_ changing. I think our bodies are getting prepped for the changes we’re going to go through tonight.”

“Yeah Homer acted weird with Marco and I today,” Jake said, “and all the animals in the barn didn’t like it when I went in earlier.”

“If we are all going to wolf out to horse-like sizes, then we are going to bust out of our clothes,” Rachel said, “and I do not need to see any of you naked. We need to pick sides of the woods and stay on our sides.”

“That’s a good plan,” Jake nodded, “keep an eye on your group and we can shout if there are any changes.”

“One last thing before the second craziest night of my life starts,” Marco said, clapping his hands together, “Tom is a controller. He’s got a Yeerk in his head.”

Jake threw down the sleeping bags he was holding and loomed over Marco, “He is _not_! You take that back right now!”

Cassie clapped her hands over her mouth, “How… how do you know?”

Marco took his eyes off of Jake and tapped his nose, “He smelled funny—from his head. It was really, really bad. Made my skin crawl. I wanted to growl at him.”

“We don’t know _anything_ ,” Jake growled, “I told you to shut up about that!”

“Jake calm down,” Rachel snapped, “you’re not helping.”

“No!” Jake shouted, spinning to face Rachel, “this is my _brother_ we’re talking about! Tom wouldn’t _ever_ let a slug control him! I know my brother and I won’t let you talk dirt about him!”

They all took a step back. Jake’s face was illuminated by the fire.

“Jake you need to calm down,” Tobias said, and gestured to his face.

Marco shook his head, “Oh my god.”

Jake was still breathing hard, but his hands started to shake as he reached up to touch the teeth that had started growing. They were jutting from his lips. His ears had gotten pointed and his hair had grown—it was starting to look silver at the base and where it had grown down along his jawline.

“Oh my god,” Jake whimpered just as Tobias said,

“It’s happening!”

“You don’t have to sound so excited!” Marco shouted.

“Get on your own side,” Rachel said, grabbing Cassie, “do we need to be angry?”

“I’m scared,” Cassie whispered, “Jake are you okay?”

“Is this too early?” Jake stammered, looking up, “th-the moon isn’t—oh.”

The full moon was already hanging overhead, high in the sky.

“But it’s not even dark!” Rachel said. Marco was pulling Tobias and Jake in the opposite direction of the girls, and deep enough into the woods that they couldn’t see each other.

“We have night vision!” Cassie shouted excitedly, “like real wolves!”

“Clothes!” Marco shouted so everyone could hear him, “take off whatever you want to wear home tomorrow!”

“You didn’t bring a change of clothes?” Rachel sounded horrified across the cleaning.

“It’s starting!” Tobias cried. He was watching his fingernails become claws, and feeling the itch of his teeth growing. He was grinning from ear to pointy ear.

“Would it kill you to be terrified like a normal person?” Marco hissed.

Tobias could only hold up his hands, “But this is _incredible_!”

Jake groaned and they heard a sickening _pop_ and _crunch_ as he hunched over. His face was starting to protrude outwards, the skin stretching like it was going to break.

“Dude get your pants off!” Marco shouted, nearly hysterical. Tobias was laughing as if this was the greatest thing to ever happen to him.

In that moment Marco started growing fur. Course, dark fur sprouted all down his skin. Stripped down to his boxers he could follow the gradient as it got lighter on his chest and stomach. His thighs creaked ominously, and without warning his _feet_ started growing. But in the wrong direction. It was happening to Tobias too.

Their toes melted together like wax, breaking into four separate toes that each grew a long, sharp claw. Their heels and ankles grew higher and higher, leaving them standing on their tip-toes, as the pads of their feet grew swollen and wide until they had a solid base to perch on.

Tobias winced as his underwear ripped while his spine grew out past its normal length, and Jake screamed a loud, growling shriek when he looked at it. Tobias didn’t look at his own tail but had the misfortune of seeing Marco’s boney tail erupt from the base of his spine, muscles wrapping around the bones as it grew and finally hair starting on the naked stump. He wanted to throw up.

 

Cassie wanted to cry as her bones shifted and ground against one another. It should have hurt—she could _feel_ the movements and each _clack_ of bone against one another inside her own body—but there was no pain. It didn’t make it any less unsettling. Her ribcage expanded out and out and she couldn’t breathe until Rachel unhooked her bra before it snapped.

Cassie fell forwards onto all fours as her face exploded outwards. Further and further it went, tapering into a long muzzle as grew fur and whiskers sprouted from her skin.

She knew the instant a wolf nose formed because she could _smell_. It was stronger than her new sense as a human from the morning!

Her hips cracked as they readjusted, shifting to give her more flexibility to shift between bipedal and all fours.

Rachel was covered in long, shaggy fur. It was even longer than Cassie’s grey fur. Rachel was still growing, too. Cassie was still bigger than a normal wolf, Rachel was nearly twice her size! Her best friend shook her head, throwing her long fur back and forth as she did so.

Rachel snarled at her, and Cassie jumped back, alarmed. Was Rachel going to hurt her?

Rachel flinched and laid down quickly, <Cassie? Cassie can you hear me? I felt that—you were scared.> She crawled forwards and reached out with one of her hands. Cassie reached out to touch her palms to Rachel’s.

They both smiled happy human smiles, but all that showed were their rows of sharp teeth in the moonlight.

 

From across the clearing they heard the others start to howl.

It was contagious! A pack! Together! Everyone threw their heads back and joined in. This is how they were meant to be. Together, in the wild.

They raced across the clearing, trampling the blankets and backpacks and the tent and joined in the middle. The werewolves rolled and hopped and rubbed against one another. They were fresh, they were _new_. This was their territory and this was their pack.

One of them raised their heads suddenly, scenting the air.

<Prey> they whispered.

<Prey,> the pack repeated as one voice, <prey. Hunt. _Kill_. > 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naked people running through the woods while covered in blood. Also, dick jokes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References to some gore and a dead animal. If you can't handle (normal) wolf behaviour then this may not be the chapter for you.

Rachel woke up to the sound of birds. There was a chill in the air, but she had her pack around her and they were helping ward off the cold. She was full after a successful hunt, and her hair was stuck to her face with—she licked her lips—with _blood._

Rachel had never woken up so quickly in her entire life. She was suddenly aware of where she was—in the woods—and who she was with—her friends. Cassie was curled up against Rachel’s front with her head tucked under Rachel’s chin. Jake was laying on his stomach behind Cassie, with an arm thrown over both girls, and Rachel could see Marco half sprawled on top of Jake’s back. Tobias’s was breathing on the back of Rachels neck, and she could feel his curled fists where they were pressed against her back.

Jake started blinking awake overtop of Cassie’s head. He was bleary eyed and squinted in confusion as he focused on Rachel.

His eyes widened as he realized where they were.

Jake went pale when he realized how _naked_ they all were and how close he was to Cassie.

“Hi,” Jake whispered after he calmed down his initial panic.

“Hi,” Rachel replied, “so… I guess we’re werewolves.”

Jake tried to pull his arm off of the girls, but both Cassie and Marco stirred so he stopped moving, “how… where are our _clothes_?”

There was the sound of something crashing through the woods nearby—it was just about dawn and a heavy mist was handing low in the trees. It was hard to make anything out, but it wasn’t walking on two legs. Rachel listened closely, and tried to smell.

“I… I can smell blood,” Jake said.

“We… you’re covered in it,” Rachel bit her lip.

Jake’s eyes widened, “Oh my god—did we attack someone?”

Rachel fought down her fear, “I’m not thinking about it right now. I want to find my clothes.”

Jake craned his neck to look in the direction of the sounds, “What is that? It… I can’t smell it.”

“Probably just a raccoon,” Rachel said dismissively, “so what’s our plan?”

“What?” Jake asked.

“The plan. I am not running around naked in the woods with a bunch of boys,” Rachel hissed, “so I’m going to wake up Cassie, and she and I are going to go hide ourselves while you look away. You wake up the boys, go find the camp and get our clothes and bring them back here.”

“That could take hours—I don’t know where we are,” Jake said.

“Let’s get started,” Rachel said.

She nudged Cassie softly and Jake tensed, “Rachel don’t wake up Cassie like this—I—oh my god what did we do last night?”

“Look, we’re all going to have to survive looking at one another after this,” Rachel said, “be a gentleman and shut your eyes.”

Cassie mumbled some sounds before blinking awake. As close as they were, Jake and Rachel could both feel the moment that she woke up.

“Rachel,” Cassie whispered quietly, “who’s behind me?”

“Morning,” Jake whimpered.

Cassie squeaked and clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Sorry,” Jake said, “I swear I’m not looking.”

“He’s been very good,” Rachel added, “he promised not to peek while you and I go hide so the boys can go find our clothes.”

“Okay, okay,” Cassie nodded, “oh my god is that _blood_?”

“Shhh,” Rachel hushed her, “Tobias and Marco are still sleeping. We do this right, we can get away without them seeing us, okay? We’ll panic once we have clothes on.”

Cassie gasped in a lungful of air, “Okay. Okay. On three?”

“Yeah,” Rachel said.

“Rachel has to get up first,” Jake cut in, “Marco’s on top of me and if I move my arm too much then Marco’s going to wake up. Once Rachel’s up Cassie you can crawl out.”

“His _arm_ ,” Cassie whispered in stunned awe. Jake was polite enough not to comment, though from her vantage point Rachel could see they were both blushing enough that they were glowing.

“Three,” Rachel said to herself, and pulled away from Tobias and Cassie, launching herself upright and stumbling as she tried to catch her balance.

Cassie was very politely trying not to stare at Tobias, who was facing her, and she slipped out from under Jake’s arm and backed away on her hands and knees.

“C’mon,” Rachel said, pulling her up, “there’s some thick trees just over—”

This was the moment the bear circling them decided to wander into view. Between them and the bear was the bloody remains of what had to have once been a deer. The bear huffed and stood on its back legs, ready to fight them for the food.

It really wasn’t a contest.

Cassie screamed, Rachel grabbed her and started running. They forgot the boys were on the ground before they stepped on them.

In the history of teenaged boys, none had sprinted from a resting position, screaming, as fast and as loudly as they did.

 

They weren’t too far from the camp, actually, and managed to get back and dressed without speaking. The tent hadn’t been torn—but one of the poles was snapped and their belongings were strewn around the clearing.

“What the _hell_ happened last night?” Marco asked. He was rubbing his hands together and trying to get the dried blood off of them. They all had blood around their mouths, and on their hands. It was speckled across the rest of their bodies but that could be taken care of with a long, hot shower.

“We went on a _hunt_ ,” Tobias said, and his eyes were bright, “as a pack.”

“At least we didn’t hurt anyone,” Cassie said, and she made a face, “and I guess it’s good we ate something.”

“I’m stuffed,” Jake admitted, grimacing, “but I don’t want to think about what I’m stuffed with.”

“This is going to wreck the plumbing back home,” Marco said, rubbing his stomach.

Everyone groaned.

“Is this going to happen _every_ full moon?” Rachel asked, “cause we need to plan better if that’s the case. I am not running through the woods, away from bears, naked and covered in blood _every_ month.”

“Maybe this one was the worst because it was the first,” Tobias said, “I don’t really remember much, but maybe now we can control it?”

He closed his eyes and concentrated, and as they watched he started changing.

“Stop! What if you attack us?” Jake asked.

“I won’t,” Tobias said, with bright green eyes and sharp teeth, “you’re pack. We don’t hurt our pack.”

“Just change back,” Jake said, “we need to figure out what’s going on.”

Tobias sighed loudly and became all human again.

“So we can turn into werewolves,” Marco said.

“We _are_ werewolves,” Tobias corrected him, “this is just a human disguise now.”

Marco very maturely stuck his tongue out at Tobias.

“So what do we do now?” Cassie asked, “go back to living a normal life, except for full moons?”

“We have to fight the Yeerks,” Tobias reminded her, “that’s why Elfangor made us into wolves.”

“Elfangor was a psycho who _attacked_ us because you wanted to play hero,” Marco snapped.

“Regardless of how it happened—we survived and we’re the only ones who know about it,” Rachel said, “we have to decide to do _something_ with the information.”

Jake shook his head, “It’s a lot to take in right now. Maybe we should take it easy—take the day off. We can talk again after school tomorrow.”

“Sounds good to me,” Marco muttered, “I need a long, hot shower.”

They gathered their things and started heading out of the woods.

“Tobias,” Rachel said, “don’t forget all your books.”

Tobias jumped and looked around, focusing on the backpack that he’d forgotten, “Oh yeah,” he laughed, “right. Books. I _like_ books.”

“Jake, Marco,” Cassie said softly, “you can’t come this way. My parents will see you.”

Marco groaned loudly, “Do we have to go _back_ through the woods?”

“Have fun boys,” Rachel laughed, walking away with Cassie.

“I hate everything,” Marco mumbled.

Jake shrugged, “We did it once, we can do it again. If we hurry we can probably make breakfast at my place.”

“I know how we could be faster,” Tobias said. His eyes were bright green and he was already stripping out of his clothes.

“We can’t just turn into werewolves and run through the woods!” Marco said, “what is _wrong_ with you?”

Tobias growled at him, and continued changing. Both Jake and Marco tensed as he finished his transformation. It wasn’t much better in the daylight. Marco’s stomach churned and Jake couldn’t hide his look of disgust.

Tobias trotted around the clearing.

{This is so excellent!} he said, and he raced in a circle around them. Tobias hopped up to them. He wagged his tail and let out an excited bark.

{Come on!} he shouted.

Jake and Marco both winced at the volume.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Jake said.

{But it’ll be so much easier getting through the woods this way!} Tobias pushed himself up onto his back paws and stood up straighter, {whoa! I’m super tall!}

Cautiously he walked closer to them, easily dwarfing Jake. Tobias leaned down to sniff them, {Hey I can kinda smell everyone on you. All our scents must be mixing from how we were sleeping.}

“We are _never_ talking about that again,” Marco reminded him.

{But it smells really good,} Tobias whined loudly, a high-pitched sound that made both Marco and Jake flinch, {it smells like pack.}

Jake pulled off his shirt.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Marco asked.

“Tobias is right,” Jake said, “this will be faster, and I want to make it home in time for breakfast.”

“Fine,” Marco groaned.

They stripped down and shoved their clothes into Marco’s backpack.

“Don’t be so grumpy,” Jake laughed, shoving Marco’s shoulder, “we can control it now. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Marco gave Jake a long glare, and clued into the fact that he was staring at his naked best friend as Jake started changing.

“Whatever you say, _Big_ Jake,” Marco shrugged.

Tobias burst out laughing in their minds.

“What?” Jake turned to look at him just as his face started bulging out, “what’s so funny?”

Marco grimaced as his legs started shifting and cracking, “Forget about it.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Werewolf romping. Things might not be all okay with Tobias.

The world came back into startling clarity with their wolf senses. Jake stretched out his legs, pointing his muzzle to the sky.

{So not fair,} Marco stood up on his hind legs, seeing how tall he could be, {I’m what— _six_ feet tall now? Seven? And you’re _still_ bigger than I am!}

{Well I am bigger than you,} Jake reminded him.

{We’re not even going there,} Marco said and Tobias laughed again.

{What are you two laughing about?} Jake sat back on his haunches.

{Nothing,} Marco muttered, {let’s get this freak show on the road. I have plans.}

Jake picked up and balanced the two sleeping backs against his chest with one arm, {Sleeping in all day then watching the ABC family movie tonight doesn’t count as plans.}

{They always play quality things! Tobias back me up here!} Marco snorted.

Tobias shrugged, and bent down to sniff the trunk of a tree, {I, uh, I don’t think I’ve ever watched an ABC family movie. Sorry.}

{You’re the weirdest kid I know,} Marco rolled his eyes, {who doesn’t watch Sunday night movies? Aw man hold on a sec I gotta loosen the backpack straps.}

 

It was awkward, maneuvering through the woods on three legs and trying to balance their things between them. They felt a little ungainly, lumbering along as if they were bears.

It was _amazing_ how much faster they still moved. How the forest seemed to open up and welcome them in now. They had to keep stopping for new sights and especially the new smells.

The forest had been in monochrome before, hiking through as humans. Even with their increased senses. Now it was in Technicolor.

{You’re right,} Jake said, leaning close to sniff Tobias, {we do smell good.}

{Like pack,} Tobias said, and rubbed his head under Jake’s chin.

Jake pulled back, {Whoa! What was that for?}

Tobias’ ears drew back and his tail tucked between his legs, {That’s what wolves do—when they’re being friendly. Also scenting, I think.}

{Oh,} Jake said, {uh… I guess we should try and learn more about wolves. And see if there’s more werewolf stuff we can learn.}

Tobias sniffed at him, {But you do smell better now. More like pack.}

Jake tried to sniff himself, {Man this is weird.}

{Hey lovebirds,} Marco shouted at them, {if you’re done being weird I think we’re coming to the end of the woods.}

Tobias sighed loudly and dropped his head, {But I like the woods.}

{We’ll come play another time then, Yogi. But for now I am _starving_ ,} Marco shrugged off his backpack and started changing back.

Jake and Marco were halfway through the mroph when they noticed Tobias hadn’t changed.

“Why aren’t you changing?” Jake asked, “you can’t just walk around like that.”

{Oh, right,} Tobias said. Finally he started shrinking.

Jake and Marco tugged on their clothes. Tobias wasn’t getting any more human. He was shrinking—and his large hands were becoming true paws.He was becoming an _actual_ wolf.

“Tobias!” Jake said loudly, “what are you doing?”

Tobias cocked his head at Jake, {Changing.}

Marco groaned, “Don’t get sassy there’s breakfast on the line. God, why are you so difficult? Just go human!”

Tobias looked down at his feet, {I look… I look like Jake, right?}

Jake narrowed his eyes, “Tobias what’s going on?”

{Blonde hair, right, sorry,} Tobias said, and he started changing.

It went very slow, his progress from wolf, to half-wolf, to human. Tobias kept pausing and apologizing. Jake and Marco exchanged worried looks. They hadn’t had this hard of a time changing shapes—why was Tobias having such a rough time?

“Sorry, wow, sorry,” Tobias said, clutching his head once he was fully human. He sat down and shivered, curling in on himself.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked, “what’s going on?”

Tobias pulled his hair, “This… this feels really weird. It feels wrong. I’m naked. It’s not right!”

Jake dropped his stuff and kneeled by Tobias, putting his palm to Tobias’ forehead to get his temperature. Tobias whimpered and leaned into the touch.

“You’re not hot,” Jake muttered, “but none of us reacted this way. Is this because of the morphing?”

Tobias grabbed the front of Jake’s hoodie and pulled Jake closer. He pressed his face against Jake’s neck, tilting his nose just along the curve of Jake’s jaw.

“You smell… _pack_. We’re pack. I’m your pack,” Tobias said. Jake could feel Tobias’ lips against his skin.

Jake shoved him off, “Um, uh, you should get dressed. We can have breakfast at my place.”

Jake went to stand beside Marco and give Tobias a bit of privacy while he got dressed.

“Dude what the _hell_?” Marco hissed, “I was only teasing about you two being boyfriends and—”

“Shut up!” Jake snapped, blushing, “it’s probably a wolf thing, okay?”

Tobias walked uncomfortably close to Jake the entire way to Jake’s house. Jake ignored all of Marco’s pointed looks in their direction. Marco would have told Tobias to buzz off for sure, but Jake knew he didn’t mean anything. He just wasn’t good at people. It was why Tobias didn’t have any friends.

Jake wasn’t sure how much more of Tobias’ weirdness he could take.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys make it to Jakes just in time for FOOD

Tobias rocked back on his heels when they got to Jake’s house. He glanced over his shoulder at the way they’d come and then held out the pillows he was carrying for someone to take.

“Don’t you want food?” Marco asked.

“I’m gonna go back to the forest,” Tobias said.

Jake took the pillows from him, balancing them on the sleeping bags he was already carrying, “And do what? Morph and run around all day?”

Tobias’ face lit up, “Yeah. It’ll be fun. You should come with me!”

Jake shook his head, “I don’t think you should go alone, Tobias.”

Tobias’ face fell, “Why won’t you come with me. We belong in the woods.”

Marco was about to make a sarcastic remark but Jake cut him off, “You should go home, if you don’t want to hang out here. But no morphing. Not until someone else is with you. We don’t know what happened to you earlier, okay?”

Jake felt bad about ordering Tobias around—it really wasn’t his place to do anything. But he was scared of something bad happening to Tobias when he could have prevented it.

Tobias nodded sadly, “Okay. I’ll.. I don’t want to waste your time. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Jake nodded, “Yeah, sure. Sounds good.”

Tobias grabbed Jake and Marco and inhaled their scents before he took off on his own. Marco’s eye was twitching while they watched him jog down the street. He was still wearing Jake’s hoodie—but Jake figured he’d get it back at school tomorrow.

“Seriously can that guy get _any_ weirder? If he sniffs me again I may have to hit him.”

Jake rolled his eyes, “Get used to it. We’re all in this together, whether we like it or not. We’re pack, I guess.”

Marco shushed him, “We can’t let Tom hear anything, remember?”

Oh, right. Jake’s stomach dropped. He’d almost forgotten.

Tom was the enemy.

Jake pulled the spare key out from under the second flowerpot to the right of the door, and let him and Marco in. He’d meant for him and Marco to get back before his parents woke up, but they’d spent more time romping around in the woods as wolves than they’d realized.

Jake could smell omelets as soon as they walked in.

“Oh my god is that bacon?” Marco asked.

Jake grimaced, “Aren’t you full?”

Marco shoved him into the wall as he kicked off his shoes, “Dude. _No one_ is ever too full for bacon.” He paused, and touched his stomach gently, “Though I may eat a little less than I normally would.”

“Jake? Marco?” Jake’s mother called, “is that you?”

They dropped their things by their shoes and made their way into the kitchen. Jake yawned loudly.

“Well I’m a monkey’s uncle—I didn’t think you boys knew this time of morning even existed,” Jake’s dad laughed from behind his newspaper. He was always making really bad jokes that weren’t actually funny and then laughing at them. Jake took after him in that regard.

“We were _really_ craving a good breakfast,” Marco grinned, sitting down in his regular spot.

“Did you boys even go to sleep?” Jake’s mom asked. Jake grabbed extra plates and cutlery for himself and Marco.

Jake shrugged, “Uh—”

He was cut off when Tom walked into the kitchen, adjusting his shirt. Tom reached over to ruffle Jake’s hair.

Tom laughed loudly, “I’m sure you were too scared about sleeping in a tent to actually go to sleep. You boys take shifts in case an axe murderer came to get you?”

Jake pulled away instinctively, bracing for the _bad_ smell on Tom. He could barely even detect it—almost to the point he wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not.

“Well,” Jake’s mom said, and she set the omeltes and bacon down on the table, “there should still be enough for everyone but be sure to share—and boys go have a nap afterwards. You look dead on your feet and we don’t have any plans for the day.”

Tom lit up, “Oh! The Sharing is having a barbeque party down on the beach today—you all should come. Jake, you and Marco especially!”

<It’s full of Yeerks,> Marco snarled.

Jake dropped his fork in surprise. Marco was talking in his _head_.

“Sorry,” Jake mumbled, taking another bite of his breakfast.

Jake closed his eyes and focused on Marco, <We don’t know that for sure,> he said, <maybe we should check it out.>

<Or it’s a trap,> Marco replied.

<What’s full of Yeerks?> Rachel shouted, though she sounded very distant.

Marco choked on a piece of toast.

<You can hear us?> Jake asked.

Rachel sounded angry, <Barely. I’m at home. Are you okay?>

<We’re fine. We’re at Jake’s. Go to the Sharing beach party tonight. Sharing is Yeerks. Call Cassie and Tobias.> Marco told her. He chewed very slowly as he talked.

<Oh. Okay. See you then.>

“Boys, wake up,” Jake’s dad said, “you’re getting too big for me to carry upstairs.”

“What?” Jake asked.

Tom rolled his eyes, “I _said_ , are you two coming to the beach tonight?”

“Sure,” Marco shrugged, “it beats doing homework.”

The finished breakfast in relative silence, both Marco and Jake ate double what they normally ate even with full stomachs from the deer they’d eaten last night. Jake’s mother forced them to go away and nap before they fell asleep on their plates.

“I’m going to gain _so_ much weight if I keep eating like this,” Marco groaned as they made their way upstairs.

Normally when Marco slept over they set up another bed on the floor, but they were too tired to even bother. They stripped down to their underwear (which they’d forgotten was actually in Marco’s backpack downstairs and spent an awkward few minutes debating who had to get dressed to go get it) and collapsed into Jake’s bed.

Marco took a deep breath, pressing his face into Jake’s bedding, and then breathing out loudly. He groaned and rolled over to throw his arm across Jake’s front, pressing his nose into Jake’s shoulder, and took another deep breath.

“Marco?” Jake mumbled.

“Shut up,” Marco muttered, “freak was right. You do smell good. And better when we mix.”

Jake rolled his eyes, but rolled so he could throw an arm over Marco and smell his best friends hair.

“You have to stop calling him a freak,” Jake said.

Marco let his head rest against Jake’s collarbone, “’sa term of endearment.”

“Then we’re all freaks now,” Jake whispered. Marco snorted but didn’t correct him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can take the story out of the cuddle house but you'll never take the cuddles out of the story


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids attend the local cults' bbq and beach party.

It wasn’t far to the beach, so Jake and Marco decided to walk rather than catch a ride with Tom. They made a quick meal before leaving, since they were both starving, and Jake’s mom complained about teenaged boys eating everything they could get their hands on.

Rachel and Cassie met up with them on their way there. They were sharing a bag of cut carrots and celery.

“I have _not_ been able to stop eating,” Rachel muttered, “if this stupid werewolf things means I gain weight I might have to kill someone.”

“Do you have any to share?” Marco asked hopefully.

Cassie held out the bag but Rachel snatched it away, “Get your own food! I can smell the sandwiches you two just ate. Ugh, ham and ketchup? _Gross_.”

“Where’s Tobias?” Jake asked, looking around, “he wasn’t doing so well earlier.”

Cassie nodded to the nearby dunes, and as they watched a small, sleek wolf with a white left paw dashed into view.

<Pack!> Tobias shouted in their minds.

“I told him not to morph anymore,” Jake said, “he was sick earlier.”

<I wasn’t alone,> Tobias announced, <like you said. I waited for the pack to show up. Now we’re all here! Lets run!>

<Tobias, we need to check out the Sharing. It might be a front for the Yeerks,> Rachel said.

They could see Tobias’ head droop, <Okay. We’ll run later. I’ll sniff them out. Let you know if I find any bad smells.>

Cassie didn’t even have to close her eyes to respond to him, <Thank you, Tobias!>

She turned to the boys, “I didn’t realize we could become a real wolf!”

Jake shrugged, “We kinda played around a bit after you two left. Maybe learned a few tricks.”

Rachel ate her last carrot stick, “Yeah, so did we. Wait til you see what Cassie’s been up to.”

The boys gave Cassie a surprised look. She grinned sheepishly and scuffed her shoe on the ground, “I—I’ll show you later,” she said, “it’ll come in handy for the next full moon.”

 

There was a bonfire burning further down the beach. People were all around it, playing, talking, eating. Kids from school. Adults. People that the werewolves didn't know. Others they individually recognized.

<Are they all Controllers?> Marco wondered. He was hovering by the barbeque.

<Is there any way to tell them apart?> Cassie asked. She’d joined some girls standing in the surf.

Jake scanned the area for Tom. What if Tom truly _was_ one of them. What if he wasn’t. Then what was that bad smell all about?

<Yuck!> Rachel nearly shouted, <these girls smell _awful_. Their heads! It’s like they’re rotting! >

<That’s the smell Tom had,> Marco told her.

<Maybe it’s just poor hygiene. Tom didn’t smell today,> Jake said.

They spent nearly an hour of hanging out there on the beach. By the end they were starting to wonder if there was any way the Sharing could be anything other than great. There was no way they could be involved with alien slugs from another world. Jake played some volleyball, him and Tom together on one team.

All four of them had to limit themselves at the barbecue to avoid suspicion—even though the ribs they had were _delicious_. Other than the fact that they could see in the dark almost nearly as well as daytime, it felt like a normal, fun night.

The sand was still warm. The night air was chilly, but near the fire it was nice.

Tom and Jake walked away from the fire to have a chat. It was the most they’d talked since Tom had joined the Sharing.

"Now you see why I enjoy this?" Tom asked him.

"It's cool," Jake said, and he meant it. He looked back at all the people, "I didn't realize it was so much fun."

"Well, that's not all it is," Tom said. "I mean, it's more than just fun. The Sharing can do all kinds of things for you. Once you're a full member."

Jake felt his stomach lurch though he wasn’t sure why, "How do you get to be a full member?" he asked.

Tom smiled mysteriously. "Oh, that will come later. First you become an associate member. Later the leaders will decide whether to ask you to become a full member. Once you become a full member . . . the whole world changes."

At that moment, something weird happened. Jake was looking at Tom, and he was smiling back at him. But then Tom’s face kind of _twitched_. His head started to pull to one side, like he was trying to shake his head only he couldn't quite do it. For just a split second there was a look in his eyes— scared or . . . or something. He was looking right at Jake, and it was like some different person, some scared person, was looking out of those same eyes.

Then he was back to normal. Or what looked like normal.

"I have to go for a while now," Tom said. "The full members have a separate meeting. You stay here and have fun with your friends. Have some more of that barbecue. It's great, isn't it?"

“Yeah,” Jake choked out.

With that, Tom was gone into the night.

Jake felt like he had swallowed barbed wire. His knees trembled and he wanted to sit down where he was standing.

Marco and Cassie spotted Jake standing along and came over. They had just finished playing Frisbee in the surf with some other kids. Marco had been laughing.

"Okay," he said, "I admit it. I was wrong. These are just normal people having a good time. And Tom is not a Controller."

Jake didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Marco was wrong.

Jake knew what he had seen in Tom's eyes — that Tom was trying to warn him. Somehow he had managed to gain control of his face for just a second before the Yeerk in his head had crushed him.

Tom — the real Tom, not the Yeerk slug in his brain — had tried to warn Jake.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassie's got good news- Jake sets off to intercept the Full Members meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here begins the countdown to the end of consistent (okay they weren't to begin with) updates. Nano has started, so as I announced on my tumblr, I won't be writing anything but my original things. I have several chapters pre-written for this story, so I'll try and update a few more times this month to keep y'all happy but once those run out it'll be a little while until I have fresh chapters for you!
> 
> Some immature humour here. Remember, they're wee babies.

Jake took a deep breath to calm himself, "They're all going off to a separate meeting. All the full members. I want to know what goes on in that meeting."

He struggled to sound normal, but his insides were churning.

"I saw people heading that way." Rachel joined them, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.

"Let's see if we can get close," Jake said.

"What's going on?" Marco asked. "I thought we just decided everything was normal here."

It was Cassie who answered him. "Nothing is normal here," she said. "Can't you feel it?" She shivered. "All these so-called full members, they're all being so perfectly nice. So perfectly helpful. They're so perfectly normal it's abnormal. And all the time their eyes are following you, watching you. Watching you like . . . like a hungry dog watching a bone."

"Creepy," Rachel agreed. "Like if you took cheerleaders, combined them with gym teachers, and made them all drink ten cups of coffee."

"They are all just a little too happy, aren't they?" Marco admitted. "People keep telling me how all their problems disappeared once they became a full member of The Sharing. It's like some cult or something."

"I'm getting into that secret meeting," Jake said. He needed to know. He had to be _dead_ sure. "Let's get further away from the fire. Over behind that lifeguard stand."

"How are you going to get into the meeting?" Marco asked.

“They won’t notice a stray dog that’s just walking along the beach,” Jake said.

“A stray… _oh_ ,” Cassie’s eyes widened, “but wolves don’t look like dogs!”

Marco shrugged, “Most people can’t tell the difference. Besides, it’s dark, they won’t be able to see very well if we don’t get too close.”

<Tobias!> Rachel called.

He came bounding over the dune a moment later, panting and looking very happy, <What’s up?>

“The full members are in a secret meeting in that direction,” Jake pointed, “do you know where they are?”

Tobias wagged his tail excitedly, holding it high in the air, <Of course! You all forget our senses are even stronger when we’re changed. I was watching mice scampering through the dune grass. Nice, plump tasty-looking things.>

Rachel made a face that would have been funny if Jake wasn’t doing the same and his stomach wasn’t churning in revulsion, “Tobias! Get a grip! Don’t start eating animals just because you’re in a wolf’s body.”

Marco chimed in, “What’s next? Road kill?”

Tobias whined and looked at his paws, but didn’t say anything. Perhaps he was offended at the suggestion that he would ever eat road kill. Or worse. Maybe he wasn’t offended.

"Where are the full members?" Jake asked.

Tobias shook off his momentary funk, <About a hundred yards down the beach. There's a little bowl-like area formed by the dunes. There are people posted all around, though, like guards.>

Jake nodded. He was going to save Tom. He _had_ to save Tom, "Good job. Tobias. You've been a wolf all night—you should change back and enjoy the barbeque.”

<No, I'll keep watch for a while longer,> he said.

"No, Tobias," Jake said sharply. "You need to morph back. You've done what we needed you to do and now you need to be human for a while."

<Um, there is that little problem . . . I don't exactly have any clothes on.>

Jake needed to think for a moment until Rachel cut in, "Cassie and I will turn away while you morph. And Tobias can wear Jake’s clothes. Just don’t wear the sweater. He left it on most of the night, no one should notice that you’re wearing the same shirt."

“Um,” Jake said.

<Okay!> Tobias said.

“We seriously need to figure the clothing thing out because this is going to end with some of us running into people we know, butt naked, one day,” Marco complained.

Cassie grinned. "I guess this as a good a time as any to share—I know how to morph clothing!”

“Whoa!” Marco shouted, “what? _How_?”

Rachel laughed, “We played around a bit too.”

Cassie was beaming and Jake was grinning widely back at her, “I, uh, I tried a few different ideas. I thought really baggy clothing would work—but I wore my dad’s old work jacket and it just got shredded. But um,” she blushed suddenly, “I, uh, I found that tight clothes—like _skintight_ —without any metal in them—work and don’t rip.”

Jake’s brow furrowed in confusion, “Why would you have metal in your clothing?”

Rachel rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh, “If you weren’t my cousin I’d swear you were brain dead. _Underwires_ , Jake, think.”

“Underw— _oh_ ,” Jake flushed a bright red in embarrassment.

“Yeah,” Cassie laughed nervously, nearly as red as Jake, “so, um, if we can all find really tight clothes then they change with us and like the morph treats it as part of your skin!”

“How cool is that?” Rachel asked.

Jake nodded quickly, “That’s _so_ cool, Cassie. You’re the best.”

“Cassie how do you have sports bras that _fit_?” Marco demanded.

“Jake!” Rachel snapped, and Jake obediently smacked Marco on the back of the head.

“Tobias,” Cassie said, staring at the ground in embarrassment, “once you get a change of morphing clothes then you won’t have to worry about being naked anywhere. But go ahead and change back now, we’ll look away.”

Still Tobias hesitated. <I hate changing back. It's like going back into a prison or something. I hate it when I’m human.>

"Tobias, you can always return to your wolf form later," Rachel reassured him, and then gestured at Jake, "now, come on, both of you. I'll look the other way so your delicate boy modesty isn't offended."

Jake took a deep breath. It was only his second conscious morph. It still seemed totally ridiculous that he was even thinking about becoming a wolf. But as he concentrated, he could begin to feel the itchiness and the squirmy feeling as the Andalite’s bite began to change him. He pulled off his pants and shirts, tossing them to Marco to give to Tobias. He saved his underwear for last, to preserve a little bit of modesty until his lighter underbelly fur had nearly covered his front.

At the same time, he could see pink human fingers growing from the ends of Tobias's paws.

"Keep a grip on your human side," Cassie warned Jake, "we can't have you off chasing cats or whatever. You need to focus hard on staying in control."

Jake started to say, "Yes, I know," but it came out "Rowr, rowwr, ruff!" He was already too changed to make normal human speech.

He thought his answer instead. <Yes, I know, Cassie. Don't worry.>

"But I do worry," she said softly.

Jake was at the in-between stage and now shrinking as he progressed to the full wolf. He leaned forwards and nuzzled her hand with his cold nose and she patted his head. Once he was fully changed he set off across the sand.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake makes it to the secret meeting and hears some awful truths.

Tobias changed back relatively fine. Slow, but fine. He started pulling on Jake’s too-big clothes as his naked skin began showing through his pale red-gray fur. He was shaking again, by the time he was human. And looked like he was going to hurl.

“Dude, you okay?” Marco asked.

Both Cassie and Rachel turned around as Tobias fell to his side in a ball.

“Tobias!” Rachel shouted, “what’s happening?” she was on her knees in an instant. Cassie was checking his temperature.

“F-feels weird. Sorry. I don’t like it. Feels wrong,” Tobias whispered.

Rachel gripped his hand tightly in hers, “Tobias there is nothing wrong with you,” she said firmly, “you are a normal human being. You are a really _nice_ human. You’re okay, trust me. There is _nothing_ wrong with you.”

They felt Jake’s alarm hit them at the same time. He was worried about why they all seemed so distressed. Marco took a step back to let Jake know they had it all under control.

Tobias pressed his face into Jake’s sweater, inhaling deeply. His shoulders realized and he sat up.

“Smells like pack,” he mumbled.

Rachel and Cassie threw their arms around him to hold him tight.

“I don’t think you have a fever but you might be sick,” Cassie said.

Tobias shook his head, “I’m okay now, seriously.” He leaned into their touches and not-so-subtly sniffed them.

“Are we done?” Marco asked, “people are going to start wondering where we are.”

Tobias’ stomach rumbled loudly and Rachel laughed.

“Sure,” Tobias nodded, and he looked sad when Rachel and Cassie stood up and stopped touching him, “lets go.”

 

Cassie had been right to warn Jake. The dunes, the surf, the low chirping of sea birds in their hidden nests — all of it was so perfect for distracting his wolf mind. Jake ran off into the night, only stumbling to a halt when he felt a surge of panic and _pain_ from his pack. He nearly doubled back to rush to their aid but Marco informed him that they had everything under control.

He made himself walk toward the meeting. He could hear the murmur of voices. At first Jake started to creep closer, then realized that was dumb. Dogs—or wolves-- didn't creep around. They just walked or ran. If he went around acting like "spy dog," that would make people pay attention.

So he wandered along, like any dog out for an evening stroll along the beach. His  tongue lolled out of his mouth. His tail wagged occasionally. The only thing he had to be careful of was not to let anyone see him too clearly. After all, he looked exactly like a wolf.

Truthfully, he _was_ a wolf.

Jake approached the edge of the area. There were high dunes all around. About twenty or thirty people were standing together. He was too far away to make out distinct details, even with his night vision. Getting closer could mean being spotted, so he dropped onto his stomach to stay where he was.

But he could hear them. He could hear them amazingly well. Sounds that he would barely have noticed with normal human hearing were as loud as a boom box set on nine.

And he could smell. It's funny about smell. As a human Jake never really understood smell, the way he did now. But when he laid back and let his wolf abilities come up, smell became as good as sight. Different, but just as good for some things.

He heard Tom's voice. And he smelled a subtle combination of things that meant he was not too far away, plus a few of the people in the group had the awful head-smell.

There was a man on guard, but he was far enough that Jake could remain just out of his sight.

Jake was beginning to realize why the Andalites had been given the power to cross over onto Earth. There are things you can do as an animal that you could never do as a human. Werewolves could slip by without anyone noticing.

The members all seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive. Jake could hear Tom say, "He should be here soon. Wait, here he comes."

There was a stirring, muttering sound. Jake heard footsteps approach. He tried to creep closer, but the guard would be able to see him if he went into the light.

"Everyone, quiet. We have problems," the voice said.

The voice! Jake knew that voice. Hadn’t Rachel mentioned hearing someone familiar at the construction site? Someone who told the Hork-Bajir to take her head for identification?

He crept a little closer. He had to look hard to see the man with his eyes. But then, when he turned just the right way, Jake saw him. Jake _recognized_ him. It was someone he knew. Someone he saw every day at school.

None other than Assistant Principal Chapman.

Jake’s assistant principal was a Controller.

"Item one. We still have not found the brats who were at the construction site," Chapman said. His voice was hard. "I want them found. Visser Three wants them found. Does anyone have any clues?"

For a moment no one spoke.

Then a second familiar voice, "It could have been anyone," Tom said. "But it might be the one who's my brother, Jake. I know he goes through the construction site sometimes. That's why I brought him here tonight. So we could either make him ours… or kill him."


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids discuss new info from the meeting.

Either make him ours… or kill him.

Jake felt like someone had punched him. Right in the gut. He felt sick and dizzy.

He told himself that Tom was a Human-Controller. Some slimy, snotty slug from another planet was in his brain controlling him. When Tom talked it wasn't even Tom, not really. It was a Yeerk,

His brother . . . one of them. Chapman . . . one of them.

They were everywhere. Everywhere! How were five kids going to stop them? How could they even try? If they could take Jakes own brother from him, if they could take Torn, then how was Jake going to be able to stop them? It was insane. Marco was right. They were doomed.

 

Even though he was prepared, and almost known it was coming, Jake felt nearly overcome with despair. Reality was almost too painful for him to stay in, he wanted to get lost hunting prey and running with his pack. He wanted to be away from the Yeerks and an impossible war and his own brother. He left his spot and moved into the dunes. He tried to lose himself in smells and sounds that weren't humans.

He just kept hearing it over and over in his head — "Make him ours . . . or kill him."

Another wolf startled him out of his funk.

<Jake!> Rachel shouted, <what are you doing? Are you in trouble? When we heard you were upset I was the only one who could get away.>

Jake let out a long whine and dropped into the sand. Rachel was lighter in color than him, and almost hilariously shaggy. She batted him with a large paw.

<Marco was right,> Jake whimpered, <Tom is one of them.>

<Oh,> Rachel said quietly, <I'm sorry, cuz.>

She laid down beside him, and the weight of her body and her scent washing over him calmed Jake down.

But he knew he had a job to do. After a while of wallowing in his own misery he forced himself back into painful reality.

<We should check if they'll give us any more information,> Jake said.

Rachel tugged on his ear with her teeth, springing away, <Then lets go! I wanna identify as many controllers as I can.> Her tail was wagging.

<They have guards,> Jake warned, <so we can't get too close.>

Rachel started trotting across the sand, holding her muzzle high in the air. She was roughly the same size as Jake—bigger than Marco and Tobias for sure. Their sizes must correspond to their human heights in some way.

Jake caught up to her and butted his head against her shoulder, <Thanks.>

She shoved him off and raced across the sand with a bark. Jake delighted in long strides to catch up with her.

They crept up the side of the dune together, giggling at how silly they would look to outside eyes.

<Is that— _that’s_ the voice I heard! Chapman! He's one of them, oh man, Marcos gonna love this, > Rachel said.

<There's Tom,> Jake said bitterly.

Tom was discussing with some other guy — some other Controller — the schedule for going to the Yeerk pool. He'd just been and was feeling good, he said. He'd be heading back on Monday night.

That was the slug in his head talking. The Yeerk that controlled Tom needed to return to the Yeerk pool.

<Jake? Rachel? Are you two okay?> Cassie called. She sounded clear, like she might be close.

<Cassie! Where are you?> Jake asked, <be careful there are guards!>

<I just got caught,> she said, <a policeman told me to go away. I’m okay, don’t worry.>

Rachel took off down the dune, <I can smell her!>

Jake caught up and overtook her, racing to beat her to Cassie.

Seeing two large wolves come bounding out of nowhere must have startled Cassie, because she jumped.

"Oh, it's you," she said with a relieved sigh.

Jake trotted forwards to bump his head against her hip, <Yeah. That was close. What were you doing there?>

She shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure you were okay."

<We were safer than you were,> Rachel pointed out.

Cassie shrugged like ‘what are you gonna do?’ and Rachel snorted. They walked back towards the fire along the shoreline. Rachel and Jake stopped a few times to splash and jump in the surf.

They made it back to the spot where Marco and Tobias were waiting. Jake realized he didn't even want to morph back into his human body. The weight of what he’d heard settled in on him again, and the playful lightness he’d felt with Rachel and Cassie vanished. If he wanted to, he could let himself go and chase the mice in the grass or run through the woods. Maybe this was why Tobias hated being human. He could forget all of his pain and just be a wolf.

Tobias wanted to change back into a wolf so that Jake could have his clothes back. They both began to morph into their other forms. Cassie and Rachel turned and looked out toward the water.

When Jake was completely human again, he said, "Marco, you were right. Tom is a Controller,"

Marco did not look pleased about being right.

Jake and Rachel filled them in on everything they’d seen and heard.

"Wait a minute. Chapman is one of them, too?" Cassie asked. "Our Chapman? Mr. Chapman the assistant principal?"

"I think he's some kind of a leader," Jake said.

Rachel cut in, "It was him the other night at the construction site. He was the one who told the Hork-Bajir just to keep the head."

"That is so Chapman," Marco said.

<I suggest we get the heck out of here,> Tobias said.

"No, it's okay," Jake said. "Chapman told Tom there was not to be any killing at a Sharing meeting. They don't want any suspicious activities. He also said they couldn't just go around killing every kid who might have been at the construction site. They needed to be sure."

"It’s decent of them," Rachel said dryly.

"Not really. Chapman just said that for a while longer they still have to avoid attracting too much attention. A bunch of kids start turning up dead and people will definitely notice. He said they should just wait — kids can't keep quiet for long about seeing aliens. When the kids talk, the Controllers will find them and get rid of them."

"Except that we aren't going to talk about what we saw," Cassie said.

"You got that right," Marco agreed. "We aren't saying anything. We are forgetting everything we saw. We are getting on with our normal lives."

"And leave Tom the way he is?" Jake demanded. "No way. Never. He's my brother. I'm going to save him."

"Just how do you figure you'll do that?" Marco asked sarcastically. "Let's see, it's you versus Chapman, the cops, a bunch of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, and, worst of all, that creep, Visser Three. All you can do to fight them is turn into a wolf and bite their ankles. It's like being stuck in the most impossible video game ever invented."

Jake grinned. Or at least he showed my teeth. He wasn’t sure if it was meant to be inspiring or aggressive, "Yeah, it is, kind of. But I'm pretty good at video games."

"And you won't be alone," Rachel said. "I'm in this, too."

<And me,> Tobias said.

"Me, too," Cassie agreed.

"Swell," Marco said. "So suddenly you're the Fantastic Four. This isn't a comic book. This is _real_."

They heard the sound of people coming through the dunes. The meeting of the full members had broken up.

"Everyone, quiet," Jake said. "We'll let this ride . . . for now."

He said that to calm Marco down. Jake had no intention of letting it ride. He was going to rescue his brother.

And he had a plan.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake's plan goes into action. Marco gets a visit from the unexpected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Poetry (featherquillpen on tumblr) for being my beta for this chapter!

**TWENTY ONE**

 

<This is the worst idea you’ve ever had,> Marco muttered, <And you have terrible ideas all the time.>

<Shut up and follow him, we’re on bathroom breaks. Our teachers are going to be suspicious if we take too long,> Jake snapped back.

<Just tell them you’re constipated.>

<Marco!>

<You’re stressed over all the work they’re giving you and the fact that there are freaking _magical slugs in peoples’ brains_ and not to mention the species hop we happened to do the other night. They’ll understand. >

<I wish you were close enough for me to hit you right now.>

Jake knew _exactly_ the grin Marco had on his face even though he couldn’t see him,  <Actually this is great. Now I can bother Rachel all day and she can’t do anything about it.>

<Don’t.>

<Hey,> Marco was projecting to Jake as well, <Rachel. Don’t think about elephants.>

Rachel’s response was swift and rumbling with anger, <I am in the middle of a test and if you don’t leave me alone I’ll _strangle_ you. Concentrate on finding Chapman you dip! >

It was weird being able to talk to one another without seeing each other. It felt a little bit like secret agents, but of course Marco talked about gross stuff when they were trying to follow Chapman to the Yeerk Pool.

Jake had been sure, since Chapman seemed to be of importance to the Yeerks, that he would be more involved with the Yeerk Pool. If they followed him and listened in on his conversations then maybe he’d give them some details. Cassie had said it might take days, and that would mean skipping a lot of classes. There were only so many bathroom breaks Jake could excuse himself on before his teachers got suspicious.

The funny part was, if he did get in trouble for skipping class, he’d be sent right to the assistant principal. Right back to Chapman’s office.

<Sights on the Ass-prince—he’s heading east by the gym. Good luck!> Marco called.

<Ass- what? Why aren’t you following him?>

<I have to pee! I’m on a bathroom break man. And ass-prince, it’s like assistant principal but funny.>

Rachel cut in again, <Please stop talking to me!>

<Is everything okay?> Cassie asked worriedly. They’d been projecting to her too. Probably the whole pack, though no word from Tobias.

<Everything’s fine,> Jake sent back to everyone, <I’m in pursuit.>

<Shut _up_ ,> Rachel snapped, and then privately she sent to him, <Good luck.>

The hallways were nearly empty so Jake could walk quickly without raising too much suspicion. He rounded the corner that Marco must have seen Chapman, and sniffed the air. There was no bad scent like from Tom, but there was a fresh smell that might have been Chapman. Jake decided to follow it. It was hard wandering his school, looking like he was supposed to be on his way somewhere, and still follow a scent. It would have been better if he could get down on all fours but that would have been a little too suspicious. Chapman’s scent rounded the corner and Jake carefully listened for any sound that hinted Chapman might be waiting and see him.

Jake closed his eyes to focus, blocking out his other senses. He could smell Chapman, knew he was close. Chapman was standing still and his heart was beating at a normal pace. He was probably halfway down the hall. Most likely looking out a window. Did Yeerks like the view of the playground? Or was there a hint to the pool there?

Then, another sound. The creaking, grating sound of metal on metal. Jake opened his eyes and stuck his head around the corner just in time to see Chapman walk into a room, closing the door behind himself.

Jake took a deep breath. This was for Tom. He was going to save Tom. He moved down the hall quickly, but tried to pretend he wasn’t rushing. He probably looked like an idiot. Marco would have been way better at this.

Chapman had gone into… the janitor’s closet? Jake stopped to sniff quickly at the door and he was right. Chapman’s fresh smell was all over. Jake looked around quickly before leaning in closer to the door to hear what was happening.

There was a loud click and Jake nearly jumped out of his skin. Chapman had locked the door.

He heard the squeaking sound again, of metal on metal. And a low rumbling like a heavy door swinging open.

A rank smell washed under the door and into Jake’s nose. He reeled and nearly gagged. It was awful! A million times worse than anything they’d smelled on any human! Over his nausea Jake heard a faint sound.

It was a scream. A scream of fear and despair. A human voice, crying out in the darkness of that horrible place.

"Noooo!" the voice moaned. "Noooo!"

Jake’s stomach dropped. He knew what the scream meant. He knew what was happening. Somewhere down there, a human being was feeling the Yeerk slug slither inside their brain. Somewhere down there, a human being was being turned into a mindless slave of the Yeerks.

Chapman’s footsteps descended down what had to be stairs—slowly getting further and further away. The heavy door closed behind him.

Jake had done it. He had found the Yeerk pool.

It was right underneath their school.

 

* * *

 

Marco zipped up his pants and was just going to wash his hands when the door to the washroom opened. For a minute he thought it could be Jake—but Jake was after Chapman and Marco needed to hurry up and join him. He ignored the other person, focusing on soaping up his hands, when he was grabbed from behind and shoved face-down against the counter.

“What the—ow! What the hell?” Marco shouted.

The guy holding him down sniffed him loudly, and try as Marco did, he couldn’t budge the arms holding him. It was like the dude was solid rock.

Marco craned his neck enough to look in the mirror and was surprised to see a face he actually knew.

“Erek? Dude what the hell?” Erek King was a guy in their grade. He was almost as tall as Jake, and fairly plain looking. Nothing remarkably special about him other than the fact he was generally considered to be a pretty nice guy. Marco knew better now, of course, since nice guys didn’t attack unsuspecting people in the bathroom and sniff them.

“Your aura has changed,” Erek said quietly. He pulled back and let Marco stand up to face him, though he didn’t relinquish any personal space. Erek grabbed Marco’s face between his hands and tilted Marco’s face like he was looking for something.

“Seriously what are you doing?” Marco snapped. Now that he was standing Marco felt a little braver. He was stronger than the average bear—Erek might have gotten the drop on him but Marco doubted Erek had ever tried to fight a werewolf before.

There was a smell in the air, one that Marco hadn’t noticed until now. It was like grass clippings after rain, and a lightning strike—ozone—in one. It was pleasant and extremely unnerving because Marco knew nothing on earth smelled like that. Especially people. It was filling the room, like a looming presence, and blocking them off from the world.

Erek didn’t smell human. Erek didn’t smell like _anything_ living.

Erek stared hard into Marco’s eyes, before leaning in and sniffing Marco’s neck. He pulled away with a smile, “Little _Varg_ ,” Erek sounded like he wanted to laugh or cry—Marco couldn’t place the sound, “What happened to you this weekend?”

“What do you want?” Marco asked.

Was Erek with the Yeerks? Were they caught before this even started?

Erek touched his fingertips to Marco’s forehead, closing his eyes as if reading Marco’s mind, “You aren’t settled yet. I can’t quite make sense of you. But you are in danger, do you know that?”

Marco swallowed, wondered how long it would take the others to reach him if he called for help now—or if it was a trap, “Yeah, your attack kinda tipped me off.”

Erek grabbed him and lifted Marco so they were face to face, Marco’s toes just brushing the wet floor, “There are monsters in the world. You are not ready for them, little varg. Inform your Alpha—tell him to take his pack to the hills. This town is no longer safe for you.”

“Little— _excuse_ me!” Marco snapped, “Put me down!”

Erek’s eyes glowed, and for a moment Marco could _see_ what Erek truly was—past the human disguise and learned mannerisms. Past the peach skin and brown hair. Erek was magnificent and breathtaking and so _un_ human that Marco’s knees went weak.

“Oh my—Erek,” Marco said quietly, “Whose side are you on?”

“What the Visser would give if I handed him a pack,” Erek said to himself, and set Marco down. He didn’t let go. Marco would have fallen over if he had. His hands were shaking. Erek had said _Visser_.

“Don’t,” Marco pleaded, “Don’t let him have us.”

Erek touched Marco’s forehead again, and then dragged his fingertips down Marco’s nose, and all the way to his chin. It was uncomfortably intimate.

“Little one, I am not interested in war. I have no need for glory or power. You are lucky—there are many who would sell you to the Visser. It’s funny that your Alpha lets you run free with so many dangers about.”

Marco exhaled with a sigh of relief.

 “You… you know about them. They Yeerks?” Marco asked.

“Yes,” Erek said, “We have been aware of the Yeerks for some time.”

“Then why don’t you do anything! You’re powerful! You could beat Visser Three no problem!” Marco shouted.

Erek licked his lips, a rather human gesture, “There are… complications,” he said.

“Thanks,” Marco muttered, “but if you aren’t going to fight then who will? Cause you see, my friends want _us_ to fight!”

Erek burst out laughing, and there was a shrill note behind it that Marco had never heard before. Wind whistling through rocky crags, the gunshot of a glacier breaking apart. It set him on edge again.

“If you fight, you will fail. You and your pack are so new, and you are barely more than children by human standards. It is hopeless to believe that you can win against the might of the Yeerk Empire. Surely your Alpha knows this.”

“Then what do we do?” Marco asked, “Just sit around and do nothing?”

“Wait. Hold onto hope. Hope that the Andalites will return with greater force. Until then, cleave to the law of the untamed wolf in your blood.”

Erek pushed Marco towards the door. The bell sounded- signaling the start of lunch.

“Oh yeah?” Marco growled, “What’s that?”

“Survive, Little One. You must survive.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Patiently beta'd by the lovely Featherquillpen (Poetry here on Ao3). Big thanks to you!  
> And a huuuggee thank you to everyone reading! Thank you for all of your wonderful comments- they make writing this story so much easier!

They weren’t able to all meet up until after school at the mall, where they thought they would appear less suspicious. Originally they were going to meet in the food court, but it had been too loud and they’d relocated outside after getting some food.

Jake and Marco had been especially quiet and wrapped in their own thoughts. Tobias was late joining them, and was dressed in new, tight morphing clothes. He looked completely out of place until Rachel made Jake lend him Jake’s flannel shirt so that from the waist-up Tobias looked relatively normal.

No one commented on Tobias smelling Jake’s shirt and grinning.

 

"Screams," Jake said. "Human screams. They sounded far off, but that's what they were."

Everyone watched Jake intently, except for Marco who was staring at his hands.

"You were listening through a door," Marco pointed out. "Who knows what you heard?"

"I know," Jake said.

"I can't stand the thought of what's happening to people down there," Cassie said. She shuddered. "It's sickening."

"We have to do something," Rachel said.

"Yeah, let's rush right down there," Marco said. "Then it can be us screaming."

Jake nearly lost his appetite for his nachos, but he was still too hungry to stop eating.

"Marco, you can't just ignore what's going on," Rachel said.

"Sure I can," he said. "All I have to do is remind myself that hey, guess what? I don't want to die."

"That's it, then?" Rachel demanded, outraged. "Just whatever is best for Marco?"

"I don't think Marco is being selfish," Cassie said. "Just the opposite. He's thinking about his father. About what would happen to his dad if Marco... if anything bad happened."

"He's not the only one who's got people to worry about," Rachel said. "I have a family. We all do."

"Not me," Tobias said softly. He smiled his sad, crooked smile. "It's true. No one gives a rat's ass about me."

"I do," Rachel said.

Everyone was surprised to hear her say that. Rachel wasn’t exactly sentimental.

"Look," Jake said, filling in the awkward silence, "I'm not asking anyone else to go with me. But I don't have a choice. I heard that scream today. And I know Tom is going down there tonight. He's my brother. I have to try and save him." Jake held out his hands, helpless. "I have to do it. For Tom."

"I'll go with you," Tobias said, "we’re pack."

"There's no one else who can do anything to stop the Yeerks," Rachel said, grabbing some of Jake’s nachos while letting him pick at her french fries, "I'm scared to death, just thinking about it. But I'm there."

Marco looked sick. He gave Jake a dirty look and shook his head. "This is bad," he said. "This is so bad. If it wasn't for Tom I'd walk away."

"Look, Marco, you don't have to —” Jake started to say.

"Oh, shut up!" he snapped. "You're my best friend, you jerk. Like I'm going to let you go face all this alone? I'm in. I'm in, to rescue Tom. That's it. Then I'm done. We can’t win something this big."

Only Cassie had remained silent. She was staring up over the heads of the mall crowd, “It… it’s really remarkable, isn’t it?” she asked, “that we were given this ability. To experience the world like no one else will. We can turn into wolves! Part of me still wishes that we’d never met Elfangor, but now that I know what’s going on, and I have some strength to help, I don’t see how I could say no.”

“Yeah, morphing into mutts, that’s some strength,” Marco muttered.

“Morphing into our true selves,” Tobias corrected.

“Morphing into _animals_ ,” Marco sneered.

“What’s with you?” Rachel growled, “you’ve been awful all afternoon. Like, worse than usual awful.”

Marco slammed his hands on the picnic table, “We’re not alone. I… uh… I got jumped. In the bathroom, at school.”

Jake sat up straight. He looked like he was ready to fight whoever had picked on his best friend, “Who was it? The Yeerks?”

“Are you hurt?” Cassie asked.

Marco shook his head, and lowered his voice so that only they could hear with their ears, “It was Erek King. You know, that quiet, nice guy who always says hello to everyone?”

Tobias nodded, “Yeah, I know him.”

Marco shook his head, shuddered, “He’s not human. He is _so_ far from human. He pinned me without any effort—I couldn’t fight back! And he knew, instantly, what I was. He was talking about auras and shit. But he knows about the Andalites and the Yeerks.”

“What else?” Cassie asked, “are we in trouble?”

Marco shrugged, tugging at his hair with a hand, “I seriously don’t know. He said he wasn’t interested in the war—that he wouldn’t fight. He won’t help the Yeerks or Visser Three, so I don’t know if he’ll sell us out or not. I didn’t say anything about you guys but if he could tell on me then he’ll know about you already.”

“Why won’t he fight?” Rachel demanded, “if he’s not with the Visser then why won’t he fight? He sounds strong—stronger than we are!”

“He is,” Marco assured her, “and I don’t know. Do I look like an encyclopedia on the really freaking weird?”

“Maybe he’ll know more about… about us, now,” Cassie offered, “we should go see him. He might give us some helpful advice on how to beat the Yeerks.”

Marco let out a defeated sigh, “I think he knows more about us— about the… the _wolf_ thing. He wouldn’t stop saying ‘your alpha this’ or ‘your alpha that’. But…”

“What?” Jake pressed.

“He said we can’t win,” Marco said.

“We can’t just give up like that,” Cassie said.

Marco rolled his eyes. "Cassie, we're five normal kids. Up against the Yeerks. If it was a football game, who would you bet on? We're toast."

"Maybe not alone," Rachel cut in, "if Erek isn’t human then there might be more we can turn to for allies!"

“Andalites, allies and Animorphs,” Marco muttered, “good grief.”

“Ani-- what?” Tobias asked.

"Idiot teenagers with a death wish," Marco said, “we’ve got Andalites and allies, let’s keep the alliteration. I figured Teen Wolves was too much of a mouthful anyways.”

"Animorphs." Jake tried the word out.

It sounded okay.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake;s plan: Part 2. Get into the Yeerk Pool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Updated- this is the beta'd chapter. If you read the previously unbeta'd version, only minor (mostly grammatical) changes were made

**TWENTY THREE**

 

"Where have you been all afternoon _and_ evening?" Jake’s mom asked him as they sat down for dinner. Jake’s family was very old-fashioned about dinner—everyone needed to be present and had to sit at the table with no distractions. Since Jake’s mother was a writer she was an avid hater of TV unless it was something she liked.

"Where have I been?" Jake repeated the question. "I'm . . . hanging out. You know. Hanging with Marco."

"I don't know why you bother to ask," his dad said. "His answer is always the same — hanging out."

"So what did you do at work today, Dad?" Jake asked him.

"Hung out," he said. He gave Jake a wink and we all laughed. Jake glanced over at Tom. He was eating chicken cacciatore like the rest of them and laughing. He seemed so normal. He even smelled human.

"You doing anything tonight, Tom?" Jake asked him.

"Why?"

Jake tried to look casual. "You know, I was thinking maybe we could shoot some hoops," he said, "Maybe you could try to teach me some new moves and I could kick your butt.”

"Sorry, man," Tom said. "I have things to do tonight."

"Yeah, like what?" Jake asked, even though he knew.

"Hanging out, no doubt," their mom said. "Eat the broccoli, Jake, it's good for you—oh. Would you like seconds, sweetie?”

Jake hadn’t realized he’d nearly finished his plate of food. He debated for a moment, then nodded.

“Jake wants seconds? You sick, son?” his dad asked, leaning over to try and get Jake’s temperature.

Jake laughed and pulled away, stabbing another slice of broccoli with his fork. “I’m a teenager! Eating is what I do!” They all laughed, and Jake turned the conversation back to Tom. "So, what was it you said you were doing?" he asked again.

Tom cast a dirty look. "Do I have to check in with you now? I have things to do. Is that okay, little brother?"

"A girl," their dad commented. "I know these things. I'm a doctor."

 _No, Dad, not a girl,_ Jake wanted to say — _a Yeerk pool. What's a Yeerk pool, Mom? Well, it's kind of a long story._

Jake decided to try one more time. A part of him still refused to believe what Tom was.

"Maybe you're just afraid to shoot hoops with me. Maybe I'd kick your butt."

"Yeah, that's it. Happy now?" Tom sneered.

His gaze met Jake’s. Was there some sign in those eyes? Some evidence of the selfish, evil creature that was controlling him? No. Not even a scent. Jake wished there had been.

But there was no way to know who was a Controller and who wasn’t. No way. It's what makes them so hard to stop. They can be anyone. Anywhere.

Jake broke my gaze away from Tom's and looked down at his food.

A few minutes later, Tom got up to go. Jake knew where he was going, and focused on finishing his meal at a normal pace and not wolfing it down. After Tom left, Jake went to the upstairs phone, where his parents couldn't overhear him. He called Marco.

"He's on his way," Jake said.

After, he called Cassie and Rachel. He tried to call Tobias, but he got his uncle instead. Tobias hadn’t been home since the weekend, according to his uncle, and was in big trouble for it. Jake quietly assured him that Tobias was okay and Jake would keep an eye out for him before hanging up the phone. What was Tobias _doing_?

* * *

 

The plan was set to attack the Yeerk pool and rescue Tom. Jake had a very bad feeling as he rode his bike to the school. He hid the bike across the street, the way they had planned. Then he hooked up with Marco, Cassie and Rachel.

"I couldn’t get a hold of Tobias—is he here?" Jake asked.

Rachel pointed to the edge of the schoolyard. The sun was setting fast, but Jake could see Tobias sniffing around the trees as a wolf.

"What is the matter with him?" Jake exploded. "He's in full view of people who are going to _know_ what a werewolf looks like!”

"Maybe we should bail until we do some more surveillance," Cassie said.

"Why? You scared?" Marco said, and then followed with, "’cause I know I am."

"Maybe," Rachel agreed, although Jake doubted she could be scared of anything. He remembered a saying about how you never know who's going to be brave or cowardly in a battle until you’re right there.

Jake just hoped _he_ wasn't a coward. His mouth was already dry and his heart was already pounding. And they hadn't even done anything yet.

Tobias bounded over and leaned against Rachel. It seemed really out of place, but she didn’t seem to mind and even scratched behind his ears.

<Are we doing this, or not?> Tobias asked.

Everyone was looking at Jake, waiting for him to decide.

"Yeah, we're doing it," he said. This was his brother they were going to save; he’d have to call the shots.

The school was locked up for the night. But Marco had taken care of that little problem. He knew of a window in the science lab that didn't lock.

They crawled into the science lab through the window. It was dark, except for the dying light of the sun that glinted off the glass beakers and test tubes. Tobias struggled to climb through the window and Rachel and Cassie had to convince him to demorph to human to get in.

Jake and Marco moved to the door together, staying low and listening for anyone in the halls.

"Let me take a look," Jake said. He opened the door as slowly as he could and peeked out through the crack. He could see down the nearly dark hallway to the janitor's closet. Instantly he pulled back in.

"There are people out there!" he hissed, "Three people heading into the closet."

"Controllers," Rachel growled.

"I guess it's dinnertime for Yeerks," Jake muttered.

None of them thought that was very funny.

"How are we going to get in there?" Marco asked.

"Wait a minute," Rachel said. "Do all the Controllers know each other by sight? I mean, maybe we're Controllers, right?"

"So we just walk right on in like we belong there?" Marco asked. "Wonderful plan, Rachel. I have a better idea — let's just kill ourselves now and get it over with."

"Maybe Rachel's right," Cassie said.

"Big maybe," Marco pointed out. "Big, _huge_ maybe. How about Tom? He would know whether we were a Controller."

Jake cracked the door again and looked out. "I think Tom's already down there," he said, "Besides, the hallway's empty now.”

The five of them stepped out into the dark hallway. Jake’s legs were stiff. His knees were rickety. He felt like he was walking like Frankenstein and trying to look casual.

They headed for the janitor's closet. Fortunately, no one else was in the hallway.

They entered the tiny room and stepped inside. It wasn’t too hard to sniff out the object that had been touched the most—the left faucet handle and a hook on the wall. From there they were able to figure out the sequence to open the door Jake had heard earlier.

The door swung open with a heavy rumble.

“That’s kinda cool,” Tobias admitted.

There was more noise than there had been earlier. Or maybe it was just that their ears could pick up more sounds without any barriers.

There was a deep sloshing, swooshing sound, almost like gentle surf breaking on the shore.

But that was the nice sound. The other sounds were horrifying — despairing cries, terrified screams, shouts, shrieking triumphant laughter.

"You sure this is just the Yeerk pool?" Marco said in a nervous, shaky voice. "I see a guy with horns and a pitchfork and I am outta here."

Jake stepped into the opening. The stairs were steep and there was no rail. He felt like he was about to pitch forward with every step.

They descended together. The door closed automatically behind them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to take a minute to thank everyone who is reading this AU and especially all of you who leave me the most wonderful comments! I'm working on replying to all of them, but know that I read them several times each because they bring such delight and joy to me to know that there are people out there enjoying what I'm writing! Y'all keep this au alive!!


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Yeerk Pool

At first they had all assumed that there would only be a couple dozen steps. Except the steps never ended. The group kept walking, and there were always more steps. The walls were dirt, and quickly became rock as they went down, down, down. It felt like the stairs would never end.

“Haven’t they ever heard of an elevator?” Marco whispered. They all giggled, a little. Very little.

Suddenly the rock walls widened out. They had emerged into a huge cavern.

The Super Bowl could have been played in the cavern and there would still be some room left over for a couple of malls. It was like a giant bowl turned upside-down, all carved out of solid rock. At the very top of the bowl was the faint outline of a hole.

<I think I can see the stars!> Tobias exclaimed. His eyes were everywhere but the actual Pool.

All around the outer edges of the cavern they could see other stairways like the one they were on. The staircases seemed to come from every direction, appearing out of the rock walls, and leading down to the floor of the cavern.

The group clustered closer to the center of the stairway. It was a sheer drop off the side of the stairs.

“This is gigantic,” Cassie said in awe.

“This isn’t just under the school.” Tobias shook his head. “This is under half the town.”

“Those stairways must lead up to a dozen secret entrances.” Marco pointed around them. "Jake, they have this entire area set up with secret passageways. Oh, man. This is worse . . . this is so much worse . . . So much bigger . . . "

They all felt the same despair. They were fools. This wasn't some little group of alien bad guys they were dealing with. To build this underground city, the Yeerks had power they couldn't even imagine.  


That's almost what it was. A city.

There were buildings and sheds all around the rim of the cavern. And they could see yellow Caterpillar earthmovers and cranes at work on the far side of the cavern. They seemed weirdly normal in this incredible place.

And there were creatures everywhere. Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and other things any of them couldn't even begin to guess at. But mostly, there were humans. A lot of them.

At the very center of the cavern was a pool, like a small lake, maybe a hundred feet across, and perfectly round. Only the water wasn't exactly water. It moved more like melted lead, and was about the same color. It smelled like death. The entire place did. It was nearly overwhelming, and they had to start breathing through their mouths to keep from grimacing. This was how some of the Controllers had smelled—only so much worse. The sloshing sound they could hear was the liquid of the pool being rippled and splashed by hundreds of fast-moving things below the surface.

They all knew what they were. Yeerks. Yeerks in their natural, sluglike state. The slugs were swimming and cavorting in the pool like kids on a hot day.

“Oh,” Cassie whimpered, “it’s awful—it’s terrible. We have to do something.”

Jake wanted to reach out and steady her—she looked like she was ready to faint—but he was worried about drawing attention from other Controllers. Rachel and Marco were casting worried looks at her as well.

<Are you going to be sick?> Rachel whispered, <Cassie, you look awful.>

<I don’t know why you all aren’t sick. I’ve never felt so awful in my life,> Cassie admitted. She shook her head and straightened her back, a look of steel coming over her face. <But don’t worry about me. We have to do something—I’ll get over this.>  


 Near the edge of the pool were cages. In the cages were Hork-Bajir and human beings. Some of the humans screamed for help. Some cried silently. Some just sat and waited, all hope lost. There were adults there. And kids. Women and men. More than a hundred, packed ten to a cage.

The captive Hork-Bajir were kept in separate, stronger cages. They paced and howled and slashed at the air with their bladed arms.

Jake almost lost hope. It felt like his heart had stopped. This was a place of unimaginable horror.

And they were so few, and so weak.

There were two low steel piers built out over the pool. On one, Hork-Bajir-Controllers politely guarded a line of humans and Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. This was the unloading station.

One by one the people knelt down, bent over, and dipped their heads toward the slimy surface of the pool. The Hork-Bajir helped them.

As they watched, a woman calmly bent over, her head just inches above the lead-gray pool. A Hork-Bajir held her elbow gently, to help her keep her balance.

Then they saw the thing dribbling, sliding, squirming, crawling out of her ear.

A Yeerk.

"Oh, no . . . " Rachel moaned. She sounded like she might be sick. "Oh, no. No."

When the Yeerk was all the way out of the poor woman's head, it dropped into the pool and disappeared beneath the turbulent surface.

Instantly the woman cried out. "You filth, let me go! Let me go! I am a free woman! You can't keep doing this! I am not a slave! Let me go!"

Two Hork-Bajir grabbed her. They dragged the woman to the nearest cage and threw her in.

"Help!" the woman screamed. "Oh, please, someone help. Help us all!"


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Animorphs enter the Yeerk Pool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lovingly Beta'd by Featherquillpen (Poetry here).
> 
> 5 Chapters left!

**TWENTY FIVE**

 

"Help! Please, someone help us!"

They had been hearing cries like that all the way down the steps. But now they were close enough to give the cries a human face. It cut straight to their souls. Tobias whimpered.

There was a second steel pier. That was the loading station. There the host bodies were dragged from their holding cages to have the Yeerks re-enter their heads. They grabbed the hosts, whether human or Hork-Bajir, and forced their heads down into the pool.

The people sometimes fought and screamed, and sometimes just cried. But they always lost.

When their heads were yanked back up out of the pool, the kids could see the slugs still slithering into their ears.

After a few minutes they would become calm again, as the Yeerks regained control. Then off they went, once more slaves of the Yeerks.

It was a horrible assembly line, from the unloading pier, to the holding cages, to the infestation pier. They moved the poor victims through at a pretty speedy rate. But there was another area they could only now see. There humans and Hork-Bajir waited on comfortable chairs, sipping drinks and actually watching TV. Taxxons squirmed around like gigantic spiny maggots.

From where they stood they could hear the faint sound of a television set.

“I can hear laughter,” Cassie whispered in shock.

They were watching the show and having a good laugh.

“Are those voluntary hosts?” Tobias mused.

“What, like Collaborators?” Marco snapped, “Collaborators and Controllers. Exactly what we need.”

"What are you talking about?" Jake demanded.

“You remember, what Elf— _he_ told us. Many humans and Hork-Bajir are voluntary hosts. Like the Taxxons themselves,” Cassie replied, “The Yeerks persuade them to let them take over.”

"I can't believe that," Rachel growled, "no person would ever let this happen to them. No one would ever give up control of themselves."

"Some people are scum, Rachel," Marco said, "sorry to burst your balloon."

“The Yeerks convince them that taking on a Yeerk will solve all their problems. I think that's what The Sharing is all about. People believe that by becoming something different, they can leave behind all their pain,” Tobias said.

"Like spending all their time as a dog," Marco pointed out.

“A wolf,” Tobias muttered, but he started down the steps again at a fast pace.

"Tobias! Come back," Jake called to him.

"We have to get moving," Rachel said, "We've been standing here staring for too long." She looked at Marco, "Don't be a jerk to Tobias, okay? We need everyone."

Rachel moved faster to catch up with Tobias.

<Does anyone see Tom?> Jake asked nervously. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the voluntary Controllers for fear that he would recognize Tom’s face among them.

Everyone was silent as they slowly continued down the stairs, looking around and peering through the dark and gloom.

<I see him,> Tobias said.

Jake hesitated before asking. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. <Is he in the cages? Or is he . . . voluntary?>

<He's in a cage,> Rachel said, <He's yelling his brains out at the Hork-Bajir guards.>

"Yes!" Jake accidentally said out loud. He _knew_ Tom would never have gone voluntarily. The Yeerks must have taken him kicking and punching.

They were at the bottom of the steps.

Jake, Cassie and Marco all ran over to hide behind a storage shed of some kind. Marco pulled the two of them around the corner, drawing them close so that they could hear him whisper, "Look, before we do this, there's one thing, Jake. You have to promise me."

Jake knew what he was going to say. It made a knot form in his stomach. Cassie still looked like she might burst into tears. Jake had never seen her this shaken before and he knew Cassie had done incredible things in healing animals with her parents. It didn’t make sense that she was freaking out so much—but then again he wasn’t sure how scared he looked to everyone else. You’d have to be an idiot to not be afraid.

"If I have to die, okay. But don't let them take me. Don't let them put one of those things in my head."

Cassie shook her head, "It'll be okay —"

"You!" a voice yelled. A human voice. "You kids. Who are you?"

They all spun around. A man. Just one man. But beside him, flanking him, was a big Hork-Bajir, looking suspicious. And on the other side, a Taxxon.

Somehow the man hadn't seen Rachel or Tobias. They were just around the corner of the building. But he had seen Marco whispering to Cassie and Jake. It hadn't looked quite right to him.

"Us?" Marco asked, "Who are we? Hey, who are you?"

"Take them," the man ordered.

The Hork-Bajir advanced on us. The Taxxon slithered forward on its dozens of sharp spiny legs, red jelly eyes quivering, mouth opening and closing in anticipation.

Jake knew he had to morph, they all did. But they were frozen with fear. Morphing in the woods to run around was one thing. Morphing to fight an eight-foot tall razorblade was another.

Then Cassie saw Rachel. She had gotten around behind the Controllers, and Tobias was creeping up beside her.

And they were getting very, very large.

 


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for Featherquillpen (Poetry, here) for beta-ing!
> 
> 4 Chapters Until the End!

Rachel was getting larger very fast. Her hair was growing almost faster than they could blink and fur was popping from her peach skin in a wave down her body. Her ears climbed high on her head, growing longer, and her face bulged out into a powerful muzzle. Marco could just barely hear the pop and crack of their bones shifting in all the noise of the Yeerk Pool. Both Tobias’ and Rachel’s feet were growing into huge paws, their ankles stretching up and up so they were standing on their tiptoes. Higher and higher they seemed to go until Rachel was at least the same height, if not taller, than the Hork-Bajir. Their long tails swished out behind them, both raised and fluffed out. Long fangs sprouted from their teeth and they both began to growl.

Rachel and Tobias now stood over six feet tall, and weighed as least three times as much as they had before. The weirdest part was how excited Jake, Cassie and Marco felt about seeing their friends turn into monsters.

<Ha HA!> Rachel laughed triumphantly. <I did it!>

Rachel’s normal clothing fell away. Jake hoped she had been wearing morphable clothes underneath like he was.

The Hork-Bajir and the Taxxon moved closer.

Rachel began twitching her furry tail. It rose like a flag behind her. She crouched down beside Tobias, scratching at the ground with their claws as they came closer. Together—enough that it had to be planned—they raised their massive heads and snarled loudly.

The Taxxon was the first to notice her with its all-around red-jelly eyes, but it didn't know how to react.

Rachel charged. One second she was standing still, and the next minute she was barrelling forward like an out-of-control automobile.

The Hork-Bajir was fast. He spun around and slashed at her muzzle with his elbow blade.

Too little. Too late.

Rachel was moving, and dodged the blow.

<You!> Rachel cried, outraged. <You attack _me_?! >

The Hork-Bajir went down, pinned under her weight. He bellowed, but Rachel's

growling was louder. She slammed the snake-like head onto the floor and the Hork-Bajir stopped moving, unconscious.

The Taxxon tried to run. It turns out Taxxons can move out when they want to.

It also turns out werewolves are very fast. Tobias’ fangs caught the Taxxon’s back end.

Yellow goo oozed from the popped flesh of the big worm. Tobias reared up to jump on it—but to their horror—the Taxxon turned and started devouring _itself_. The awful stench of Taxxon innards, and the sight of it _eating_ its own body, made all of the children gag.

The human was still just standing there. He said, "Andalite?" Like he couldn't even think about this being real.

Rachel got up in his face, breathing heavily through her long fangs. Her tongue lolled out of the side of her mouth.

<Yeah,> they heard Rachel say. <An Andalite.>

The man screamed. He seemed to accept that this was actually happening.

Rachel picked up the man by the front of his shirt, tearing the fabric with her claws, and hurled him over the building as far and hard as she could.

<Quick!> Tobias yelled. <Morph!>

"Nice work, Rachel," Marco said, "Remind me not to ever make you mad."

Jake focused on his wolf—on the grey fur and the dark stripes. On his amber eyes and long tail. He tried not to puke as his bones shifted together, and felt the rush of the muscles growing and growing as he got stronger. There was strength in his jaws now, and with these fangs and claws he could really fight. As the last of his humanity faded from sight, Jake felt a braveness he didn’t realize he had. The wolf—Jake—knew fear. He used fear. It was his tool. But it did not rule him.

<More Hork-Bajir coming!> Rachel said.

Rachel turned to face them, lips drawn up in a snarl. Tobias was at her side, though he’d changed further so that he truly was a wolf. It made him smaller, but more agile.

Hair grew from Cassie’s face. Marco ripped out of his shirt—his arms were bulked up and massive now. Their tails shot out behind them and they were unrecognizable to anyone who might have known them, safe in their fur disguises.

Their eyes looked through the darkness like it was broad daylight.

The Hork-Bajir came running, arms slashing at the air.

Jake pushed up to stand beside his cousin. He couldn’t contain himself and opened his mouth and howled. Everyone else joined in. The Hork-Bajir stopped dead in their tracks.

<Let’s do this!> Rachel shouted.

Jake had never felt an anger like this before, and he could feel it in all of his friends. The need to bite and kill. It wasn’t like the hunt. This was _anger_ and _hatred_. This was their duty!

The muscles in Jake’s back legs coiled up. He bared his teeth and gave another roar loud enough to make the ground quiver.

He leaped through the air, his friends on his heels, claws outstretched.

 


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence- I forgot to keep updating this while I focused on finishing the sequel in time. Anyways, I'll try for more regular updates again. Enjoy!

Jake sailed through the air and struck the closest Hork-Bajir in the chest.

Down they went with Jake on top of him. The Hork-Bajir rolled over and tried to get up. He was fast. Jake was faster.

He ducked under the blow from the Hork-Bajir’s razored arm. His left paw swung, so fast even he couldn't see it. It left four oozing tracks across the Hork-Bajir's shoulder.

Another Hork-Bajir! Wrist blades, elbow blades and talons whizzed. They were like a pair of lawn mowers on full throttle.

And still Jake was faster. He couldn’t even recall what happened next. He was a whirlwind of fur and fangs.

On one side of him was Rachel. She’d torn the throat out of a Hork-Bajir and green blood was staining her shaggy fur. Marco and Cassie, on Jake’s other side, has teamed up and were snarling at another Hork-bajir, making him back away. Marco’s eyes looked like little flames in his black fur.

The Hork-Bajir fell back. Jake roared again. They turned and ran.

<Now!> Jake shouted, <Before they get organized again!>

Rachel sprinted out front. She _plowed_ through the corner of one of the sheds, like an unstoppable force.

Marco came loping along, with Cassie at his heels. They swung their muzzles left and right, biting at anyone who came too close. Jake ran right down the middle, looking for any Controller dumb enough to mess with him.

They reached the cages. The people and Hork-Bajir inside shrank back. They were almost as afraid of the werewolves as they were of the Controllers.

<K9 rescue party is probably not what they'd been hoping for,> Marco joked.

Tobias was down at the infestation peer, driving the guards away so that everyone being held in the line could escape. Cassie ran to join him.

Jake began ripping at a lock on one of the cages. It was strong, but so was he now. The lock gave way. The door flew open.

Marco did something very human to reassure them. He made a little bow, then crooked his finger at them as if to say come on out!

Tom was the first out. He looked scared and mad and determined. Jake was going to send him a thought message, telling him who he was, but suddenly there was Rachel, screaming in Jake’s head.

<Jake!> Rachel said. <Look. It’s him!>

He seemed almost harmless in his human body. A tall man, yes. He was broad in the shoulder and there was something off-putting and _not_ human about him. But next to the monstrosities that were the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons, he looked totally normal and plain.

But Visser Three had an Andalite body. He had the werewolf’s power to morph. And he had already murdered Elfangor.

A Taxxon slithered up beside Visser Three and spoke. It was a weird, half-whistling sound.

"Ssssweer trrreeesswew eeeesstrew."

Visser Three said nothing. He just looked at the werewolves standing frozen between him and the cages.

<This Taxxon fool says you are wild animals,> Visser Three boomed loudly in their minds, <He wants to know if he and his brothers can eat you.> He laughed <But I know you are not animals. I know who and what you are. So. Not all of you Andalites died when I ambushed the portal.>

It took Jake a couple of seconds to realize what he meant. Then it hit him. Of course! He thought they were Andalites— _real_ \-- Andalites. He knew they were werewolves, but had been a part of Elfangors pack—but from the Otherworld. He was so close to the truth and so far off.

<I compliment you on getting this far. But it will accomplish nothing. Because now, my brave Andalite warriors, it is time. Time to die.>

He began to morph.

Jake realized he’d been wrong to be hopeful.

They were not going to make it.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got so busy writing the second fic that I forgot I hadn't 'officially' finished the first by publishing it online for y'all to read! My bad! So as a treat for waiting so patiently, here's the last three chapters in one fell swoop.

 <Head back for the stairs!> Jake cried to his friends. It was their only chance.

Cassie looked at the other humans and Hork-Bajir behind her in the line, <Run!> she shouted at them, <all of you, run!>

They did. Cassie plowed into the panicky crowd,  all heading for the stairs.

Jake started after her, racing with Marco, Rachel, Tom, and the crowd of hosts they'd freed from the cages.

The Controllers were starting to get organized. A group of Taxxons were slithering out to stop Cassie, just as Jake caught up with her.

<Up and over!> Jake said to Cassie as they neared the line of Taxxons.

<Up and over!> she yelled back.

Side by side, they sailed over the startled Taxxons. Rachel plowed through two of the nightmarish centipedes, opening their balloon skin and spilling their insides. The other Taxxons converged on them as Marco leapt through their ranks. Marco raced along the outside of the freed humans to get to the stairs faster, rather than running in the crowd like the rest of the werewolves.

Visser Three doubled, tripled in size. His huge square muzzle seemed to explode from his face. Short, thick course fur grew from his human body. His arms turned into tree trunks. As his morph finished he threw back his head and the howl seemed to suck the air from the cavern and all the light as well. It stole Jake’s courage and fanned the fear in his belly.

Up ahead he could see Marco and Tom as they made it to the stairs. It gave him hope. He was going to save his brother. He _had_ to save Tom.

<Tobias!> Rachel shouted, suddenly at Jake’s side. Tobias was standing ahead, his tail tucked under his body as he stared up at the Visser. His ears were flat and he was cowering. Rachel dashed ahead and grabbed him by the scruff. He was too big to properly carry but she threw him to the stairs, and startled, he began to scramble out.

Even the Hork-Bajir-Controllers backed away. Even they didn't want to be near Visser Three when he morphed.

But the Taxxons edged in closer, crowding around their leader like a pack of hungry dogs looking for table scraps.

Jake had started to think that with their morphed bodies they could take on anything. But they couldn't take on this monster. Not if they wanted to survive.

<Run!> Jake yelled to the others. <Up the stairs! Hurry!>

Cassie was still trying to get as many people up the stairs as she could. Something caught her attention and she leapt back down to someone who had fallen and sprained her ankle. Quickly Cassie got the woman onto her back, and struggled to her feet with the extra weight. Then she galloped toward the stairs.

<Yes, run,> Visser Three crowed. <It makes a more challenging target.>

Then, Visser Three struck.

He leapt from his place among the Hork-Bajir, tossing people aside as he ran. He was like a battering ram. Aimed straight for Cassie.

<No!> Jake shouted, his terror for Cassie giving life to his paws again. He raced forward with his long strides but wasn’t fast enough to stop the Visser from grabbing the woman on Cassie’s back in his jaws. He shook her like a rag doll and tossed her aside. Cassie was torn between fighting him in outrage and fleeing. She was no match for him.

It was only because the Visser was laughing at Cassie’s snarl did Jake surprise him. Jake tackled the larger wolf off of the stairs, falling a good fifteen feet down the sheer side to the bottom.

<We have to get out of here!> Marco yelled.

<Yes, run! Run for the stairs!> Jake repeated. <Rachel! Get moving! Clear a path!>

Jake’s head was swimming and he only managed to get to his feet before the bulk of the Visser hit him.

<Puny _fools_! > the Visser roared, <you think you can challenge _me_? >

He had a massive paw on Jake’s throat, and try as he might, Jake couldn’t break his grip. He was too big, too powerful.

<You are all so _tiny_ ,> the Visser laughed, <where is your Alpha? Let me kill him!>

Jake couldn’t breathe. His teeth were barred and his claws couldn’t get through the Visser’s dense fur.

<Hold on!> Rachel cried and she flung herself off of the stairs above them to land on the Visser’s back. She tore at his ear, shredding it in her fangs, before he reared and threw her off. His weight came off of Jake’s throat and Jake shoved him, knocking the larger wolf off-balance.

<Hurry! They have—I don’t know what those are but—oh my god they’re shooting lasers!> Marco shouted.

The human and Hork-Bajir controllers were holding things that _might_ have been guns, from a distance, but they seemed to be solid objects. There was no sound of gunshot, and they all were mumbling words too low for the werewolves to hear over the panic in the cavern.

A burst of light would fly from the things they were holding, red and dangerous in nature, and it looked just like a laser. Jake was reminded of Star Wars. Tobias sprang back as one laser hit the ground at his paws and he snarled.

Cassie watched, horrified, as the lasers were targeted on everyone fleeing up the stairs. They looked like they were being burned alive. One moment a man was running, the next his legs were gone below the knees. One woman was vaporized completely.

<Where is your Alpha? Are the Andalites so stupid they would send sikla after me?> Visser Three was growling.

Jake and Rachel were facing him, standing side by side with their fangs barred. He was blocking them from the stairs.

<Or,> the Visser’s single ear came up, the other a bloody stump on his head that he hardly seemed to feel, <are you all that is left of the Andalite pack on Earthside? I didn’t think there had been any new portal activity since killing Elfangor’s pack,> he laughed, <are you children here for revenge? Is one of _you_ the new Alpha? Come forward and fight me like a proper dragga! >

<What is he saying?> Rachel asked.

<I don’t know,> Jake shook his head, and called out to the others, <no one talk to him! He thinks we’re from the Otherworld! Don’t let anyone know we’re human!>

Cassie’s voice was desperate, <Jake we need to stop them! They’ll kill everyone before they can escape!> She was running back down the stairs. The escapees were frozen on the stairs, torn between risking death by laser and returning to Visser Three’s drooling jaws.

<Cassie what are you doing?> Marco shouted, <he’s too big! Get away!> The black wolf was halfway up the staircase.

Cassie barred her teeth at Visser Three, and he glanced over his shoulder to laugh at her, <Little she-wolf, this is no fight for you. Unless you are the Alpha?>

Cassie’s tail stayed high but she said nothing.

Jake didn’t like the Visser looking at Cassie like that, and Rachel must have felt the same, because they both moved forwards at the same time. Their growls sounded as loud as race cars. Jake had never been in a fight before tonight, and he could still taste Hork-Bajir and Taxxon in his mouth. There was flesh stuck between his fangs. But those fights, he’d _known_ he could win. He had been larger than most of them. The Visser was a wolf. Just like them. Except he was bigger.

<He’s big, but bigger means slower,> Rachel said, almost reading Jake’s thoughts.

<Ha ha, you are fond of the she-wolf?> The Visser said at their reaction. He deliberately turned and moved towards Cassie, <then perhaps I should kill her first.>

Cassie shrank back, walking backwards up the stairs, as the Visser prowled closer. With a furious whine Marco started moving down to stand at Cassie’s side. Jake and Rachel moved nervously to the bottom of the stairs. The way was very narrow, and a wrong step would mean another fall. Jake had been lucky the first time, to not have hurt himself too badly. On top of that, there were still lots of humans on the stairs. They all tried to get away from the Visser. Marco noted that as long as the free humans weren’t trying to leave, the lasers had stopped.

"No," Jake heard a familiar voice say, "No, you filthy creep. You aren't going to win this time."

It was Tom.

All alone, he charged at Visser Three, armed with nothing but his fists.

The Visser turned and grabbed him in his jaws.

<Tom!> Jake cried. His wolf body roared with all its might. But the sound was lost in the noise of crying humans and whistling Taxxons.

They watched, transfixed, as the Visser threw Tom as if he weighed nothing.

They watched him fall from the edge of the stairs.

Jake was on the Visser before he knew what was happening. On his back, digging his claws into his fur. Jake bit into the Visser’s thick hackles as the Visser tried to grab at him.

The wolf in Jake knew what to do. He let go and sank his teeth into the thinner fur on the Visser’s face and clamped his powerful jaws and held on.

The Visser roared in pain. Jake roared in hatred.

For an instant they locked eyes, and Jake had never felt a hatred for any creature so strong it burned like fire up through his belly and he wished more than anything to break open the Visser’s skull with his teeth and scoop the Yeerk right out of that brain with his own claws.

Visser Three grabbed Jake, and just as he tore Jake off of himself, Marco and Cassie leapt into the fray to bat at the Visser’s face. They startled him long enough for Jake to twist away. Rachel dashed up, shoving at one of the Visser’s hind legs. She slipped by while Jake snarled at the Visser’s bloody face. Jake had managed to open up his muzzle from his eye to the corner of his mouth and the flesh hung by a thin strip.

<I’ll kill you all, Andalites,> the Visser snarled, <run away, it doesn’t matter! I’ll kill you!>

<Run, Jake! Run!> Cassie shouted.

They were all running for the exit. The humans they had freed started running again, now that the wolves were fleeing. Red lights filled the top of the stairs, and Rachel felt the fur on her side burning. Cassie’s tail was leaving a trail of smoke from the hit she took as they ran.

They ran and they ran, exploding out of the tunnels with a thousand nightmares on their heels. The wolves vanished into the darkness before the Yeerks could follow them. None of the humans escaped.

But they had survived. The Animorphs. They’d gone into hell and made it out alive.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last official chapter, then epilogue!
> 
> Thank you for reading!

Tom was not free.

Jake was laying in bed later that night, shaking and shivering and crying from the aftereffects of terror, when he heard Tom come home.

Tom never knew that Jake had been there—that he was the wolf who had wounded the Visser. He never knew how close Jake came to freeing him. Tom was a Controller again. The Yeerk was in his head once more.

It was almost morning when Jake was awakened from dead sleep by a voice whispering in his mind. He bolted upright, afraid it was a Yeerk for a moment.

<Jake,> Tobias said, <Jake up now.>

Jake opened his window. There was a light grey wolf, streaked with brown and with a solid white paw, sitting on his lawn.

<We can hunt now. Or play— go play! We can get pack!> Tobias said. He sprang to his feet when he saw Jake’s face, his tail wagging excitedly.

Jake let out a long sigh of relief, even though he hated being woken up early, <You made it,> he said, <Oh, man, you had me scared. We weren’t sure where you went when we got out and Rachel was scared you might still be down there. I mean, I thought you could probably find somewhere to hide in that cavern but… It's good to see you.>

<Pack,> he said, as if that was an answer, <How is pack?>

<Alive,> Jake said, <Alive. I guess that's all that counts.>

<Yes. That is all good thing. Now come!>

<Come on, Tobias,> Jake said, and he yawned loudly. He was too tired to be bothered by the weird way Tobias was talking, <Morph back. You can stay here. I'll even let you have the bed. I could sleep on nails, I'm so tired.>

He didn't say anything. Just cocked his head to the side as if he couldn’t comprehend the idea of morphing back.

<Pack,> he said again.

<Tobias I’m going to bed,> Jake told him, <do you want to come in or not?>

<Pack outside?> Tobias was trying to give him puppy-dog eyes. For a wolf, it was an impressive effort.

<No I’m going to sleep inside. If you want in I’ll come let you in at the back door. Change back before anyone sees you.>

Jake shut his window softly and watched Tobias get up and trot towards the back door. He rubbed sleep out of his eyes as he quietly made his way downstairs. Jake hadn’t realized how sleepy—and _hungry_ , now that he thought about it—he was until now. He wouldn’t even be bothered by Tobias smelling all of his stuff.

Tobias, still a wolf, was sitting at the back door.

“You have to morph,” Jake mumbled quietly.

<Pack!> Tobias cried happily, and rubbed his muzzle against Jake’s thigh.

Feeling rather embarrassed, Jake tried to push the wolf away but was overpowered in his human body.

<Tobias stop! You need to morph! What if Tom sees you?>

<Happy! Pack!> Tobias’ tail was wagging, <hunt now. Pack hunt!>

Jake remembered how they’d had to train Homer to stop sniffing everyone’s butts, and he hit Tobias on the nose. Tobias whimpered and pulled back. He crouched down and made himself as small as possible, even rolling onto his back a bit in a way that Jake remembered from what Cassie had taught him was a submissive wolf pose.

<Tobias knock it off! If you’re just going to play around then go away! I want to sleep,> Jake snapped.

<Want pack,> Tobias mumbled, and he crawled forwards enough to put his head on Jake’s feet.

<Then turn human, _now_ ,> Jake ordered.

A shudder ran through Tobias’ body, and Jake watched as the changes started happening. Tobias’ body grew, his head and limbs getting larger and longer as he moved to the in-between stage. Suddenly he let out a pained whimper like he’d been hit again and he stopped changing.

<Shut up,> Jake said, listening if anyone had heard him. No one was getting up, <now finish changing.>

Instead Tobias started changing _back_ to the wolf form. He got smaller and smaller, fingers became paws again and the mane around his throat shortened.

<What are you doing?> Jake asked.

<Hurts,> Tobias moaned, <No change.>

Jake groaned in frustration, <I don’t have time for games, Tobias. Go bother someone else, okay?>

<Come run?> Tobias asked hopefully, wagging his tail again.

Jake slammed the door. It was rude, and he’d apologize later, but he was angry that Tobias was just goofing around. Besides, Jake left the door unlocked in case Tobias _did_ want to come inside. Tobias wasn’t dealing with the fact that his _brother_ was the enemy and that Jake hadn’t been able to save him last night. Jake was just so tired.

He crawled back upstairs without any word from Tobias, and passed out in his bed once more.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read and commented on this story! I've been so lucky for all of your enthusiasm and support, and hopefully in the next few months I'll finish the next part of the Werewolf AU and be able to post that for your entertainment. 
> 
> You're all the best and I'm such a lucky writer to have been able to capture your attention. Thanks for taking a ride with me into the fantastical, and hopefully you'll come back for more!

School passed by in a daze for Cassie. It felt entirely surreal what had happened last night. She’d laid awake in her bed, staring at her ceiling, and been too afraid to cry. They’d fought, and maybe they’d won because they’d survived, but they hadn’t saved anyone. She’d watched people _die_. Thankfully the burn on her tail had healed when she’d morphed, so she didn’t feel any pain except for the marks she was wearing on her soul. And those felt like they might never heal.

She wandered the halls like a ghost, just going through the motions. Until she ran into Erek King.

It was her wolf senses that alerted her to his presence. She’d been staring at her muddy boots when her mind started signaling that something was _wrong_.

Erek had been watching her intently.

“There’s pain in you, little one,” he said quietly, “is your Alpha treating you well?”

Cassie drew back, terrified about what her mind was telling her about Erek. Nothing about him was what it appeared and the deceptions were making her dizzy.

“What’s—” _What’s an alpha_ but that was a stupid question. Cassie knew exactly what an alpha wolf was. It was the leader, the one who held the pack together. The strongest wolf in the pack.

And they _were_ a pack now. It was still hard to believe and wrap her brain around it. She had gotten accustomed to the fact that she could change her form—it almost delighted her now. She was still getting used to the sensory changes, and the fact that she was stronger than she realized. Those things Cassie could deal with.

But she and her friends were a pack now. On top of being friends there was a new element to their relationship that ran deep in their blood. They’d become these creatures the same night, attacked by Elfangor, and were stumbling through the changes together. But that was something they hadn’t considered. They still called themselves human… but _were_ they anymore? How long before acting like humans was too difficult for them?

Rachel was suddenly at Cassie’s side and she barred her teeth at Erek, taking Cassie by the elbow and guiding her away. Down the hall Cassie caught a glimpse of Jake and Marco, standing together near Marco’s locker, watching them intently. What were they going to do about Erek? He might know things, things about them that would help prepare them for changes to come. He knew about the Andalites. Maybe he would know how to contact them.

Cassie pulled away from Rachel and marched back to Erek. He seemed fascinated by her.

“You know about us,” she said, “and you know more than we do. Will you help us?”

Erek looked at her and she felt like his eyes were the eyes of a tornado, the calm in the center of a maelstrom, “Yes… but not in the way you might hope.”

“Where can we meet you?” Cassie asked. Her courage was leaving her. Jake was starting to move down the hall to intercept. Marco was hanging back, but still just a step behind. Rachel’s hand closed around her arm again.

“Not yet, give it time,” Erek said, “tell your pack that you are in no danger from me. I will contact you when the moment is right, little one.”

Cassie let Rachel pull her away, and quickly she sent a message to Jake and Marco that she was alright. She could feel Erek watching her and Rachel until they turned the corner and were out of his sight.

 

Tom knocked on Jake’s door, “Phone’s for you,” he said, sounding mad that he had to go the extra few steps out of the way to tell Jake to answer the phone.

It was so typically big brother that it made Jake feel sick. How long had that Yeerk been in Tom’s brain?

“Hey,” Jake said as he picked up the phone. He watched Tom retreat into his room, where there were no phone lines. Tom couldn’t listen in unless the Yeerks had other methods, but since they didn’t know much about the Yeerks, and phone lines were too easy to listen over, Jake tried to sound as casual as he could. His heart was racing. It was too late for a social call.

“Jake,” Cassie sounded nervous, “I, uh, you know Tobias, from our class?”

Jake’s heart skipped a beat. Had Tobias shown up? He hadn’t been at school that day, and no one had seen him since Jake had yelled at him that morning.

“Yeah, I think so. What about him?”

“Well he wanted to borrow some notes from me, and I was wondering if you could pass them on to him because I’ve got some extra work to do in the barn.”

Jake was trying to pay attention to Cassie’s words. Tobias and her barn, those were the hints. Something she needed him for.

“I might be busy,” Jake said, glancing at Tom’s closed door and wondering how he could sneak out of his own home, “maybe I should see if Marco will do it. Or Rachel?”

Jake could feel the fear in Cassie’s voice, “No just get it to him right away. I don’t think Rachel or Marco have the notes he needs.”

“Okay,” Jake said softly. She needed him to come _now_ because Rachel and Marco either couldn’t come or weren’t answering their phones, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Night, Cassie.”

“Goodnight Jake,” she replied.

Tom popped his head out of his room as Jake hung up. He was grinning and Jake suppressed a shudder as the face, “Making plans with your _girl_ friend?” he teased. It sounded just like Tom.

Jake rolled his eyes, “It’s just Cassie, knock it off. She’s not my girlfriend!”

Tom— the Yeerk—  mocked him by rolling his eyes as well. It was exactly what Tom, the real Tom, would have done, “Yeesh. You’re so defensive. Whatever, squirt.”

Jake took that as a dismiss and went downstairs. He said goodnight to his parents and went through the motions of brushing his teeth and flossing. He tried not to think about the strips of Hork-Bajir flesh between his fangs the night before. Once he was safely in his room Jake turned off all the lights and lay under his covers while he listened to the sounds of his house. He stretched out his hearing, listening intently.

Tom went downstairs and said he had a little volunteer work to finish up for the Sharing. Jake’s stomach lurched. His parents didn’t like that Tom was going to be out so late, but he assured them he’d be home before long and that he hadn’t done anything to prove he wasn’t trustworthy.

The Yeerk left and Jake continued listening. His parents were watching TV. Now was his chance.

Quietly, so his floorboards didn’t creak, he messed up his blankets and stuffed pillows, his extra blanket, and his basketball underneath and arranged them to look like it was him sleeping. If his parents stuck their heads in they wouldn’t know the difference.

Jake changed quickly into his tight morphing clothes, biking shorts and one of his favorite shirts he hadn’t been willing to throw away from when he was younger, and opened his window. It was on the side of the house, out of view of the neighbors and the street. But it was a two-story drop and Jake wasn’t athletic enough to get down without breaking a leg. There was a tree that might be within leaping distance, and Jake and Marco had often dared each other to try, but Jake knew he couldn’t make the leap.

He gulped, and listened again for his parents. They hadn’t heard anything. Jake’s mom was saying something about maybe going to bed. Jake needed to be gone before they came upstairs.

Licking his lips, he closed his eyes and focused on morphing. It was terrifying to do this in his own bedroom. Quickly his fur sprouted, his dark stripes looked jet black in the moonlight. He grew taller and taller, his arms buldged out, and miraculously, Jake’s clothes stretched with him. He didn’t understand how it worked exactly, but he wasn’t going to complain about not having to be naked. His fur grew right through  the material like it was skin.

Jake felt sloshy and his body creaked, but he stopped there. He wasn’t fully changed to the half-way point, and he didn’t want to think about what he looked like, but if he grew any more his shoulders wouldn’t fit through the window.

With pops and cracks that sounded loud enough for his parents, or even the whole block, to hear, Jake moved and leaned out the window. He wasn’t long enough to reach the branch now, but there was enough power in his legs to facilitate the jump.

He pulled his feet up onto the windowsill, ignoring the nausea he felt when his partially-changed bones ground against one another, and braced himself in the opening. He was hunched over, trying to keep his back from scratching on the top of the window, and counted to three.

Jake swung himself along the branch, using the momentum of his jump, and clung to the trunk of the tree. He was mindful of his undeveloped claws, reminding himself he couldn’t leave any sign of a werewolf being here. Once he was close enough to the bottom he let go and landed on all fours. It felt much, much better once he took the extra minute to finish the change.

Jake knew he was faster in his halfway form, but he was still in the urban area and needed the shelter of the woods to really run. He continued the change until he was a wolf, and moved to the back alley to avoid the streetlights. Not that he needed the light— even without his powerful eyes, the moon was bright enough to illuminate the world. He ran hard for Cassie’s.

 

<Cassie? Cassie, I’m here,> Jake whispered as he crept up to the side of the barn. He was still in his half-wolf form, unsure what would be best for the situation.

Cassie came running out. She looked like she had been crying.

“Oh Jake, oh my god. I can’t get through to him. One minute he wanted to play but when I was done I tried to change back and he almost attacked me!”

Jake couldn’t stop himself form barring his teeth. Tobias attacked Cassie? What was wrong with him?

Cassie shook her head, “It’s okay I locked him in a cage, I’m fine. But now he won’t talk—he’s acting like a real wolf!”

Jake made his way inside the barn, growling to silence the animals inside. The smells were overwhelming and for a moment he felt the urge to kill them all—it was a hunting sense. The feeling of being the greatest hunter and then being confronted with so much prey all in one place. He shook off the feeling with a sliver of guilt. He wasn’t just a mindless animal—Jake didn’t just go around killing things.

Tobias was in a cage close to the door and he shrank back against the wall of the cage when he saw Jake. He was still in his wolf form but there was something in the way he held himself that spoke of a feral nature in his heart. It hadn’t been there, or at least not in total, when Jake last saw him.

Jake started to change back to human, and as he did so, Tobias began to snarl. Jake stopped, and decided to try going to his full wolf form. Tobias’ growl softened, though it was still there. As Jake’s fully wolf features emerged, Tobias actually wagged his tail and moved forwards to stick his nose between the bars and get a good scent of Jake.

<Why is he angry at people and okay with wolves?> Jake asked.

Cassie pushed her way into the barn, fully wolf as well, <I don’t know. He’s acting like a normal wolf though—like a normal, _wild_ wolf. >

Jake didn’t know what to make of that. He scratched the floor with a paw and looked Tobias in the face, <Tobias _stop_ playing around. What are you doing? >

Tobias whimpered and dropped to the floor of the cage at Jake’s voice. He looked terrified.

<Answer me!> Jake demanded.

<You’re scaring us,> Cassie added softly.

Tobias let out a long whine as if he was in a great deal of pain.

<Cassie what’s happening?> Jake asked, <why is he like this? Did he spend too much time in morph?> Tobias had been awfully fond of being a wolf. Maybe they could only change for short periods of time. Jake wished he knew more about being a werewolf.

<I don’t know! Maybe?> Cassie replied. She crept closed to the cage and pressed her nose to Tobias’. He wagged his tail, though his ears stayed flat on his head.

<Maybe we should try normal wolf language?> she said.

Jake snorted, <And I’m sure you’re fluent. How do I ask him to turn human? Do wolves have a special bark for that?>

Tobias growled softly, and though it wasn’t any actual word that Jake knew, he could sense a meaning from it. It was ancient, a way of communication that his brain could only comprehend because he himself was now a wolf.

Tobias wanted to hunt, to run under the moonlight with them.

<I don’t know what to do,> Cassie said.

<He wanted to play and hunt earlier,> Jake mused, <maybe that’s all he needs now?>

Cassie nodded, <Some pack bonding time? Maybe… I wish I knew what to do.>

<We’ll figure it out. Besides, it’s not like he can run away,> Jake laughed, <we can track him if he goes anywhere.>

<Okay,> Cassie said, <I’ll open the cage.>

The cage itself was just a latch, so it was relatively easy for a wolf with a human mind and comprehension to open it. Tobias crept out warily, and glanced hungrily at all of the animals in their cages around them.

Jake growled at him and Tobias followed the larger wolf outside. Once there, Tobias seemed to have forgotten all about the animals and excitedly pressed his muzzle to Jake’s, licking Jake’s face excitedly, and then did the same to Cassie. Jake had no idea how to react. Tobias had officially lost his mind, he figured. Once they got him to turn human again, then they could figure out how to help him. Maybe he needed to see a shrink—though, Jake figured a human shrink wouldn’t really know what to do with a werewolf for a patient.

Jake didn’t know how to signal a hunt, but he felt it was usually started with a howl. Cassie didn’t want to start howling right beside the barn and her house, so Jake raised his tail and trotted into the woods. Cassie and Tobias followed.

They were quite a ways in, safe enough that Jake thought they would be able to hunt and howl without worrying Cassie’s family or anyone nearby.

<Here we are,> he said proudly, <now lets have some fun.>

He’d accidentally spoken to Tobias as well, and the wolf shrank back with an angry snarl. He looked between Jake and Cassie, and whimpered loudly as if someone had struck him repeatedly. Tobias shook his head, scraping his muzzle along the dirt.

<Jake! Jake stop him! What is he doing?> Cassie cried. She sprang back, away from Tobias, to stand at Jake’s side.

<Tobias! Tobias stop!> Cassie begged.

Her words seemed to only enrage the wolf and he started scratching at his own face and howling in pain as he did so.

Jake moved forwards, hoping he could get the wolf to calm down. He tried to remember the growl Tobias had used—the one for _hunt_ —and repeated it.

Tobias swung around, and the growl in his voice was full of fear and rage. He looked at Cassie and Jake like they were strangers, and slowly backed away. When he was only a few lengths from them, he turned and dashed into the trees.

Jake and Cassie remained where they stood, dumbfounded.

<We have to get him!> Cassie shouted.

Jake put his nose to the ground immediately, locating Tobias’ scent and then charging off after him. There was something chilling Jake to the bone about this and he couldn’t place it. Cassie was right on his heels, shouting for Tobias to wait and to come back to them.

Jake was reaching out, trying to get a grasp on what Tobias was feeling right now and why he would be reacting so strangely. It hit Jake so suddenly that he stopped dead and tripped over his paws. He tumbled into a clearing, with Cassie tripping over him but just managing to stay on her feet.

Jake couldn’t feel Tobias in his head. He could feel _everyone_. Cassie was strongest, right beside him. Rachel and Marco felt weaker, but they were far away. There was a gaping hole where Tobias should be.

<That isn’t Tobias,> Jake realized, <that’s a real wolf! It’s not human.>

Cassie shook her head, <Yes it is. No other wolf has that coloration, I guarantee it. It’s too unique.>

<Cassie I can’t feel him! What’s going on?>

Cassie sat down as she tried to reach out as well, <He… he’s just… he’s gone!>

The wolves were too wrapped up in their own horror that they failed to notice the pair of eyes watching them from the shadows. The green eyes reflected the moons light in the darkness, glowing faintly among the bushes and shrubs. They had watched a young wolf run past, and wondered why these wolves would be chasing a feral animal. For this creature knew _exactly_ what Jake and Cassie were.

<How is that possible?> Jake whimpered. He was thinking of how attached Tobias had been to his wolf form, and how much he hadn’t wanted to change to human. Were those warning signs? Was this going to happen to _all_ of them?

And right then, when they should have been standing together against a threat greater than anything humanity had ever known… they were falling apart. That weight settled on Jake’s shoulders and together he and Cassie threw their heads back and howled into the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End 
> 
> (of Part 1)


End file.
